Rockaway Beach closed to swimmers and surfers on Tuesday after a woman was attacked by a shark — in the first shark blitz at the popular NYC beach in 70 years.
The unnamed 65-year-old woman was bitten by the shark just before 6 p.m. Monday as she was swimming off Queens Beach.
The woman lost a 20-pound piece of flesh from her left leg, above the knee, to the shark.
A spokesman for the New York City Police Department told The New York Times Tuesday morning that the woman’s condition was “serious but stable” after she was taken to Jamaica Hospital.
The last shark attack along Rockway Beach was in 1953 when a 15-year-old boy was bitten by a shark caught in his fishing line. Before that, the last shark attack on Rockaway Beach was in 1909, according to the New York daily news.
However, the Long Island coast is no stranger to attacks, with six reported so far this summer.
Rockaway Beach was closed on Tuesday after a woman was attacked by a shark, leaving her in serious condition. Police gather on the beach at 59th Street Monday evening
The woman was bitten a few inches above the left knee (pictured) and rushed to Jamaica Hospital
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation workers plant a red flag to warn visitors that swimming is prohibited at Rockaway Beach on Tuesday, August 8
The shark’s gruesome bite took 20 pounds of flesh from the victim, according to The New York Post.
That reports the app for reporting crimes residentpolice put a tourniquet on the victim before she was taken to hospital in critical condition.
The FDNY confirmed to DailyMail.com that officers had responded to a call on Beach 59th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard at 5:52 p.m. Swimmers were summoned from the water shortly after the incident.
After the incident, police flew a drone and a helicopter over the beach to locate the shark, but were unsuccessful. Parks Department officials said the FDNY and NYPD are continuing aerial surveillance of the beach to check for sharks.
“For safety reasons, Rockaway Beach is closed to swimming and surfing today, Aug. 8, due to recent shark activity,” Gregg McQueen, a spokesperson for the parks department, wrote in a statement.
Police gather along Rockaway Beach on 59th Street after a woman was attacked by a shark in the early evening of Aug. 7. It was Rockaway Beach’s first shark attack since 1953
Parks Department officials said the FDNY and NYPD are continuing aerial surveillance of the beach to check for sharks. Pictured is a surveillance drone on the beach on Monday evening
It was the first shark attack on a person on Rockaway Beach “in recent memory,” the parks department said
The incident follows shark sightings off Rockaway Beach last year, which led the city to close the beach to swimmers last July.
The attack is the latest in a string of incidents in recent weeks. While attacks as far west as the Rockaways are rare, swimmers farther east along Long Island are at greater risk.
A Long Island shark expert told the Daily News that Monday’s attack was likely due to poor visibility in the water.
‘Today it was very windy, the water swirled. The water is probably a bit cloudier. That all adds up to the potential of these bites,” said Christopher Paparo, manager of the marine laboratory at Stony Brook University.
A teen was attacked by a shark over the July 4 holiday weekend while traveling to New York’s Fire Island. That attack was one of six on Long Island this year.
In the July 4 holiday incident, officers from the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau were called to the shore of Fire Island and rushed to help the 15-year-old bitten from Kismet Beach around 5:20 p.m.
The teen was then taken to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip for medical attention.
Last year, six shark attacks occurred in just six weeks
Before 2022, New York had only recorded a dozen unprovoked bites. Only four people have been bitten by sharks in the past decade, according to data compiled by the International Shark Attack File, which tracks shark attacks around the world.
Last year, eight people reported being bitten by sharks swimming in the shallows off Long Island’s beaches.
“We are now more vigilant than ever,” said George Gorman, the Long Island Regional Director for New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Even though the injuries aren’t serious, he and others are concerned about the increase in shark sightings and encounters.
Last year, the US saw 41 of 57 confirmed cases worldwide, which is a shocking 72 percent of the world total for 2022, according to the International Shark Attack file.
More specifically, Florida is by far the shark capital of the world, with 16 unprovoked non-fatal bites last year – the most attacks of any other state or place.
The district of Volusia, known as a shark hotspot, saw 44 percent of the total attacks.
New York saw the second most attacks last year, with eight in total. Hawaii was next, with a total of five bites, one of which was fatal.