A fisherman is recovering after a shark bit while fishing near Long Island, New York on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
According to The New York Post, the fisherman was unaware that he caught a 2 to 3-foot gray shark while he was fishing off a pier in the Village of Island Park in Hempstead around 2:30 p.m.
Hempstead spokesman, Brian Devine, told the media outlet that the fisherman didn’t realize it was a shark until he tried to unhook it. The large fish then bit him. “This is purely of his doing,” Devine said about the fisherman. “He brought the shark to him.”
Upon their arrival, members of the Island Park Fire Department applied a tourniquet to the man’s arm before he was taken to a nearby hospital. His injuries were considered minor.
Devine shared that while the pier, located in Shell Creek Park, is considered a popular fishing spot for locals, swimming is prohibited. “that’s not uncommon in any way,” Devine continued while discussing fishing in the park. “But obviously catching a shark and getting bit is a little more uncommon.”
Officials then stated that it was unclear what happened to the shark after it bit the fisherman.
Shark Incidents Reportedly ‘New Norm’ in Long Island Waters With Uptick in Bites
Meanwhile, New York Post reported in July that shark incidents in Long Island are the “new norm” as bites increased in summer 2023.
There were 13 reports of shark bites recorded on Long Island during the past two years. Experts say that New Yorkers now have a 1 in 4 million chance of getting bit by a shark.
“It’s a new norm that people are familiar with now,” Frank Quevedo, an environmental scientist and executive director of the South Fork Natural History Museum, stated. “Shark interaction occurring on the beaches here on Long Island specifically.”
Five swimmers were bitten off the beaches of South Shore during the course of three weeks in July 2023.
At the time of the report, there were just 24 reported unprovoked attacks since 1937. Nearly one-quarter of the attacks were in the past 15 years.
Hans Walters, the Curator of Animals at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium, shared insights about the attacks. He stated the Long Island shark victims tend to swim into the “crossfire” of a shark feeding. “I’ve watched these animals feed, and I think they’re direct — they know what they want,” he said. “They swim into a school of menhaden with their mouths open, thrash their head back and forth.”
“Somebody swims past and gets tagged,” he added. “And the shark misses a meal, loses a few teeth, the person goes to the hospital.”