Beachgoers in Florida stormed out of the water, shouting “get out of the water” as a huge shark stalked the shallows in the run-up to Independence Day.
It was the same day a 15-year-old boy was savagely mauled off the coast of New York’s Fire Island and just a day before two others were bitten there and a swimmer was bitten in the Hamptons.
Multiple beachgoers at Pensacola’s Navarre Beach filmed people running out of the water when a single fin was seen breaking through the deep water’s edge.
Some are heard shouting: ‘Get out of the water!’ while others questioned the shark’s location as it bobbed and tossed through the shallow surf.
Beachgoers in Florida stormed out of the water, shouting “get out of the water” as a huge shark stormed the shallows in the run-up to Independence Day
Cristy Cox told the Pensacola News Journal that it was shocking even though the shark was just doing its normal routine.
“The shark was just trying to eat as expected and passing swimmers,” she said.
“Everyone was stunned as it moved across the beach, following the shoal of fish. We all need to remember that this is normal and we are in their house, so stay alert.”
It comes after a 15-year-old was mauled off the coast of Fire Island and three others were bitten on July 4, according to the New York daily news.
A 49-year-old man was bitten on the right hand while paddling Fire Island Pines and an adult woman was bitten on the thigh while swimming in Cherry Grove.
In Southampton, a 47-year-old man suffered a cut to his right knee from a shark bite after swimming in chest-deep water off Quoque Village Beach.
All victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at local hospitals. It was not clear what kind of sharks had bitten them.
The same can’t be said for the 15-year-old who was torn apart after taking to the waves on his surfboard off the coast of Fire Island on Monday afternoon.
Multiple beachgoers at Navarre Beach in Pensacola snapped photos of people racing out of the water
Meanwhile, three more people were bitten on the beaches of New York’s Fire Island on Tuesday after a teenager was attacked the day before
The teen surfer swam to shore where he was helped by another beachgoer and received first aid.
The surfer said the shark had sunk its teeth into his left heel and toes, but they were still intact.
Officers from the Suffolk County Police Department’s Marine Bureau were then called and they rushed to help the victim after he was bitten off the island’s Kismet Beach at around 5:20 p.m.
The 15-year-old was then taken to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip for medical attention.
The unnamed teen is just the latest victim to be attacked off the coast of the island.
The teen was mauled by the shark Monday afternoon after taking to the waves on his surfboard off the coast of Fire Island, New York.
The surfer said the shark had sunk its teeth into his left heel and toes, but they were still intact (file image)
A 15-year-old was attacked by a shark off a New York beach that saw six attacks in three weeks last summer
Fire Island will now remain on high alert for the rest of the summer after six shark attacks in three weeks hit the area last summer.
The first of last year’s attacks occurred on June 30, when a 57-year-old swimmer at Jones Beach suffered a foot wound that doctors said was “a possible shark bite.”
A few days later during the 4th of July weekend, lifeguard Zachari Gallo was ironically playing the role of a victim during a training exercise in the waters of nearby Smith Point Beach when he was bitten in the chest by a shark.
Gallo knocked the five-foot-tall shark away, injuring his hand. It was the first reported shark attack on that beach since 1959.
“I felt sharp, sharp pain and once I felt the rubbery texture, I knew it was some kind of shark,” Gallo shared CBS last year.
Last year, six shark attacks occurred in just six weeks
“I hit the shark three times. I went boom, boom, boom. I think he turned back on the third and hit me in the chest with his tail.”
On July 7 last year, another lifeguard was playing the role of a victim 200 yards from a beach on Fire Island when he was bitten on the foot by a shark.
Sharks often react to splashes and mistake the splashes for prey, which could explain why two lifeguards acting as victims were targeted.
Less than a week later, on July 13, two more attacks occurred, again one on Smith Point Beach and another on a beach on Fire Island.
The first was a 41-year-old man who was knocked off his paddleboard by a sand tiger shark and bitten before repeatedly hitting the predator and riding a wave back to shore.
The second, on Fire Island, was an Arizona man who waded into waist-high water before being bitten in the buttocks and hand at around 6 p.m.
Bradley Peterson, an associate professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, called the increased contact a “success story.”
Shark sightings seem to be plaguing New York area beaches again this year, with video captured last year of one jumping out of the water in Queens
Peterson said the attacks and sightings in the summer of last year “were the result of some really excellent resource management strategies that have somewhat modestly increased not only shark populations, but also their prey.”
But he also said it’s risky to go into the ocean early in the morning or in the evening because that’s when sharks are hunting.
said Peterson FOX weather the sharks main purpose was to feed on bunker fish and said ‘they are there to feed on the bunker; if they bite you, it’s by accident because they were chasing fish.’