It comes as a heat wave keeps beaches in a pack and authorities continue to monitor sharks using lifeguards, boats, helicopters and drones.
Surfer Max Haynes, 16, was bitten about 15 to 20 yards off Kismet Beach on Fayer Island Wednesday night.
He was bitten on the right leg and said he had been playing with his friend James pretending to be a shark about 30 seconds before he was attacked.
“We were actually throwing each other off our boards, scaring each other, you know, grabbing each other’s legs in the water, pretending we were sharks,” he said. “And then all of a sudden, 30 seconds later, they actually start chewing me up.”
He suffered a cut about 4 inches in size.
“I felt on my leg like a bear trap just grabbed me from underneath, so hard,” he said. “It felt like I broke my leg.”
His doctor told him that he could tell the size of the shark’s jaw from the bite marks, which led to estimates that the shark was about 6 feet long.
Haynes is a junior lifeguard at Fire Island and Jones Beach and a surf instructor.
“I just started rowing,” he said. “And I said, ‘James, you better follow me, especially if you want to get out of here alive.’
His father was on the shore.
“I just saw the blood on his leg, instantly, it scares you,” Michael Haynes said. “I’m an EMS physician, so it’s hard for you to be between the parents and the EMS medic. So your part of the EMS quickly assesses how serious it is.”
Haynes was conscious and carried hundreds of yards to his family’s vacation home. There, while waiting for help, the bleeding was stopped.
“I really started to hurt when I was in the ambulance,” Max said.
Still, he doesn’t expect the incident to change his behavior.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said.
All this happened on the same day as a a dead great white shark washed ashore at Quogue in the Hamptons.
Experts say warmer, cleaner waters mean sharks are coming closer to shore.
Lifeguards are trained to identify distinctive shark fins.
Gov. Kathy Hachul says New York State beaches have increased staffing.
Teddy Tilkin, an expert at the Long Island Aquarium, tells Eyewitness News that surviving a shark encounter depends on several important factors.
“Keep calm as much as possible and try to get away from the shark,” Tilkin said.
He said to swim away with as little splash as possible so the shark doesn’t sense you’re hurt or in pain.
“If they had really bitten and wanted to eat us, we would have lost limbs and suffered a lot more external damage from multiple attacks,” he said. “Because sharks are extremely powerful animals.”
RELATED | Shark Alley? More sightings at Long Island beaches as swimmers are urged to exercise caution
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