Why do East Coast shark sightings, attacks seem to be increasing?


Cary Epstein has always known sharks lurk in the ocean off the Long Island shore. But it wasn’t until recently that the New York lifeguard started to see them for himself.

Last summer, a lifeguard at Jones Beach on Long Island got bit by something — a minor injury that didn’t require stitches. There was no clear culprit, so state park officials asked Epstein to fly his drone over the area to see what might be swimming near the shore. 

“Our minds were blown,” Epstein said. “I started finding sharks. A lot of them.”

That discovery led New York State Parks to purchase their own fleet of drones and train more than a dozen lifeguards to fly them three times a day this summer, searching for sharks and large schools of fish that might attract them. The 550 lifeguards that patrol several state parks on Long Island have also been taught to identify different kinds of dorsal fins and will undergo Jet Ski training next summer to help with shark patrols, Epstein said.



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