Beachgoers from Florida were seen falling out of the sea and yelling, “Get out of the water” while a giant shark prowled in the shallows.
Monday’s frightening encounter came on the same day a 15-year-old boy was brutally mauled off the coast of New York’s Fire Island, and just a day before two others were attacked at the same location and another was bitten in the Hamptons.
At Navarre Beach in Pensacola, swimmers were filmed charging out of the water while a single fin was seen navigating the shore.
Startled beachgoers could be heard shouting “Get out of the water” while others asked for the location of the shark, which was bobbing and snaking through the shallow surf.
Florida beachgoers were spotted plunging out of the sea and yelling “get out of the water” as a giant shark stalked the shallows in the run-up to Independence Day
Cristy Cox told the Pensacola News Journal that although the shark was simply going about its normal routine, it was shocking.
“The shark was just trying to eat as expected and just passed swimmers,” she said.
“Everyone was stunned as it ran down the beach chasing the school of fish. We all just need to remember that this is natural and we are in their home so stay alert.”
According to the New York Daily News, on July 4, a 15-year-old boy was mauled off the coast of Fire Island and three others were bitten.
A 49-year-old man was bitten on the right hand while paddling off Fire Island Pines, and a woman was bitten on the thigh while swimming at Cherry Grove.
In Southampton, a 47-year-old man suffered a cut in his right knee from a shark bite after swimming in chest-deep water at Quoque Village Beach.
All of the victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at local hospitals. It was not made clear what species of shark bit her.
The same cannot be said for the 15-year-old, who was mauled Monday afternoon after hitting the waves off the coast of Fire Island with his surfboard.
Several beachgoers at Navarre Beach in Pensacola snapped footage of people running 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 previous day
The teenage surfer swam ashore, where another beachgoer helped him and provided first aid.
The surfer said the shark stuck its teeth into its left heel and toe, but these remained intact.
Officers from the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau were then called and rushed to the victim’s aid after she was bitten off the coast of the island’s Kismet Beach around 5.20pm.
The 15-year-old was then taken to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip for medical attention.
The unnamed teenager is just the latest victim to be attacked off the island’s coast.
The teenager was mauled by the shark after taking his surfboard out into the waves off the coast of Fire Island, New York, on Monday afternoon
The surfer said the shark stuck its teeth into its left heel and toe, but these remained intact (file image)
A 15-year-old was attacked by a shark off the shore of a New York beach that saw six attacks in three weeks last summer
Fire Island will now remain on high alert for the remainder of the summer following six shark attacks in the area in three weeks last summer.
The first attack last year occurred on June 30, when a 57-year-old swimmer at Jones Beach suffered a laceration to his foot that medics said was a “possible shark bite.”
Ironically, a few days later, on the weekend of July 4th, lifeguard Zachari Gallo was 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 punched the five-foot shark away, injuring his hand. It was the first reported shark attack on this beach since 1959.
“I felt a sharp, stabbing pain, and when I felt the rubbery texture, I knew it was some kind of shark,” Gallo told CBS last year.
Last year there were six shark attacks in just six weeks
“I met the shark three times. I went boom, boom, boom. I guess the third time it rolled back and its tail caught me in the chest.”
On July 7 last year, 200 meters from a beach on Fire Island, another lifeguard played the role of victim when he was bitten in the foot by a shark.
Sharks often react to splashes and mistake the splashes for prey, which may explain why two lifeguards who acted as victims were targeted.
Less than a week later, on July 13, two more attacks occurred, one again on Smith Point Beach and one on a Fire Island beach.
The first was a 41-year-old man who was knocked off his paddle board and bitten by a sand tiger shark, before repeatedly hitting the predator and riding a wave back to shore.
The second case, on Fire Island, involved an Arizona man who waded through waist-deep water before being bitten on the buttocks and hand around 6 p.m
Bradley Peterson, an associate professor in Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, called the increased contact a “success story”.
This year, the beaches in the greater New York area are once again being plagued by shark sightings. Last year, a video was captured in Queens showing a shark leaping out of the water
Peterson said last summer’s attacks and sightings were “the result of some really excellent resource management strategies that have not only made the shark populations a bit more modest, but their prey as well.”
However, he also said that it is risky to go into the sea in the early morning or evening hours when the sharks hunt.
Peterson told FOX Weather the sharks’ primary goal is to feed on bunker fish, saying, “They are there to feed on the bunker; If they bite you, it will be by mistake, because they were chasing fish.’