A Long Island lifeguard was playing a victim on Sunday in an ocean training exercise when he was attacked by a shark and fought the beast with his bare hands, officials said.
Smith Point Beach lifeguard Zack Gallo was bitten in the chest and right hand during his terrible encounter with the 4- to 5-foot-long shark, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said.
“He was playing the role of a victim and, in the midst of that, he became a victim when this shark bite occurred,” Bellone said at a news conference.
Gallo fought the shark “by hitting him,” Bellone said, according to the news.
The injuries to the rescuer’s hand probably “occurred when he was hitting the shark,” Bellone said. “At that point, the interaction ended.”
Other guards who were already in the water for the exercise rushed to help Gallo, who was “bleeding significantly,” but the victim was miraculously able to get out of the water without help, police said.
Smith Point Beach was closed Sunday after a “shark-related incident” involving a lifeguard. Edmund J Coppa
The injured rescuer was bandaged and taken to a local hospital, Bellone said.
“Fortunately, he’s doing well,” Bellone said. “He ‘s in a good mood at Southside Hospital … doing some stitches.
The town of Hempstead also formed a “Shark Patrol” after a fisherman saw a 10-foot Mako shark on Memorial Day weekend about 11 miles west of Jones Beach.Getty Images / iStockphoto
“Ironically, if there was any time to have an interaction with a shark like that, where you end up biting, this is the time when he was becoming a victim, and there were actually some of our other lifeguards in that exercise. They are already coming out, and in the middle of the incident, he suddenly became a real victim, ” Bellone told Newsday.
The beach was closed after the attack.
Bellone says authorities pulled out a drone to control the water and saw a shark, but “We don’t know if it was the same shark or not.”
A second beach east of Smith Point, Cupsogue, was also closed Sunday “due to dangerous marine activity,” county park officials said.
Three days earlier, nearby Jones Beach in Nassau County saw a swimmer suffer a “possible shark bite,” prompting county police to increase patrols on the beach before the weekend. holiday of July 4th.
The town of Hempstead also formed a “Shark Patrol” after a fisherman saw a 10-foot Mako shark on Memorial Day weekend about 11 miles west of Jones Beach.
Shark attacks on Long Island “are extremely rare,” county officials said, but have increased in frequency lately.
More shark sightings have been observed in the last two years than the entire previous decade combined.