Recent Shark Attacks Haunting New York Beachgoers

The odds of a shark attack being fatal is 1 in 3,748,067. You have more of a chance of dying from being struck by lightning, a car accident or the flu. However, in recent years a man was killed by a shark off of a beach in Cape Cod and a New York City woman suffered a deadly attack in southern Maine. If you are an ocean swimmer these days on the beaches of New York, you may want to keep your eyes open for some deadly friends. Two people were bitten within 72 hours off the southern coast of New York's prestigious beaches this week.

On Thursday, a man swimming at Jones Beach on Long Island was reportedly bitten by a shark, according to the Nassau County Police Department. Then on Sunday, a 33 year-old lifeguard fought off a shark while performing a training exercise at Smith Point County Park, east of Jones Beach. Both men sustained non-life threatening injuries.

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According to nytimes.com, Thursday's incident involved a 57-year-old man was swimming in the ocean around 1 p.m. when he “sustained a laceration to his right foot.” Medics who treated the man’s injury identified it as a possible shark bite. The lifeguard Zachari Gallo, according to newsday.com had one thought running through his brain on Sunday, 'Get this creature off me and get to shore. I start, you know, hammer punching down,” Gallo, 33, recounted in an interview with newsday.com outside his Bayport home Monday afternoon. “I feel rubber as I'm punching. I had hit it three times and on the third time, the shark flung its body and swam away from me.”

Are New Yorkers beginning to get a little nervous about swimming in the ocean? One beachgoer told newsday.com on Monday that she is a little nervous but is interested in the monsters of the deep. Raven Ingarra of Moriches said, “I’m a little bit scared and I like them a little bit.” However, some aren't nervous at all. Ray Springsteen of Bellport told newsday.com that he’d been visiting Smith Point for 42 years and he has no fear of jumping back in the salt water off of Smith's Point. “Not at all. There’s been sharks here forever. I know they’re there.” The odds may be in your favor...for now.