A swim at a popular New York beach was cut short on Friday when a person was bitten on the foot in what officials believe was a shark encounter. Local parks officials say the swimmer, who'd been in the water off of Jones Beach State Park's Field 6, suffered foot lacerations and was taken to a hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening, reports the AP. Lifeguards quickly cleared the water, and authorities searched for sharks or other hazards. After an hour with no sightings, they reopened the ocean but limited people to waist-deep wading.
"Lifeguards carried him back to the surface, and they helped him out," one bystander tells News 12 of the apparent attack, which took place around noon. "He was holding a rag on his foot, and there was blood all over his toes." One lifeguard on the scene says the victim's bone was left exposed after what the victim described as a "jaw-biting motion," per the New York Post. Officials stressed they weren't 100% sure the injuries were from a shark, attributing the incident only to "unknown marine life," reports the New York Times.
However, the incident followed multiple shark reports on Thursday at Rockaway Beach in Queens and off Point Lookout on Long Island, which triggered temporary swimming bans at several area beaches, per the AP. Officials say shark sightings have risen as drones are used more often to scan the water, even as experts stress that bites remain uncommon: Globally, there are typically 60 to 80 unprovoked incidents a year, and it's unusual to see more than one in the same region around the same time.
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