Long Island lifeguards train to respond to shark bites
HEMPSTEAD, Long Island (PIX11) -- Summer is winding down, but the beach is still a popular destination. Lifeguards patrol the shores, and they always need to be ready for a recuse.
In the Town of Hempstead, about twenty lifeguards participated in additional training as part of a new partnership with NYU Langone.
They learned about pressure points, shark bites and testing tourniquets. Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin wants visitors to feel comfortable on the beach.
“You see the lifeguards on jet skies and in the small crafts. Knowing the training, they feel great coming to the beach,” Clavin said.
Justine Anderson, the deputy commissioner for the town’s parks department, said sightings have skyrocketed in the last few years.
“The food sources coming in closer now. The fish are closer to the shoreline. The water is healthier,” Anderson said.
Beach communities, including New York City, also use drones to scan for potentially dangerous situations in the water.
The town says the lifeguards are already trained in identifying sharks. Beaches would be closed if there’s concern about a sighting while it is investigated.
Shark bites are rare. At the beginning of August, a woman was severely injured off the coast of the Rockaways.