Sweetbriar Nature Center’s Janine Bendicksen said the teeth of the lynx are about 2 inches long. Photo from Sweetbriar Nature Center
A lynx was captured and brought to Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown after roaming around the Town of Islip for three days.
An escaped lynx is calling Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown its temporary new home. Photo from Sweetbriar
On July 29, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) and Suffolk County Police Department officials announced the capture of the lynx. It was first spotted on the loose July 26. The SCPD received a call on July 29 that the animal was seen on Hawthorne Avenue in Central Islip after a few sightings around the town. Third Precinct and Emergency Service Section officers captured it after it was tranquilized with the help of Frankie Floridia, from Strong Island Animal Rescue League, who brought the animal to Sweetbriar.
The SCPD has not confirmed who the owner of the lynx is.
Now named Leonardo De Catprio, after he arrived at the nature center, the veterinarian examined him and found he had some parasites, ear mites and a small wound on his face and mouth, according to Janine Bendicksen, the center’s director of wildlife rehabilitation and curator. Overall, he was in good shape and estimated to be around a year old.
She said she was in the vet’s office when Leonardo was being examined. His mouth is big, she said, with teeth 2 inches long. As he was being sedated, he swatted and roared.
“It was just scared,” she said. “I’m sure it has a very sweet side, too. You just don’t know. It’s a wild animal.”
Bendicksen said Leonardo is currently not visible to the public as lynxes are nocturnal.
“It’s not something that wants to interact with the public,” she added.
A GoFundMe page organized by a Sweetbriar employee has raised more than $2,400 toward a $3,000 goal as of Aug. 3. The money will go toward the care of the lynx as well as for the specialized food he needs.
“It eats a lot,” Bendicksen said. “It’s 35 pounds now, and it’s probably going to double in size.”
The lynx Leonardo De Catprio being examined after being captured July 29. Photo from Sweetbriar Nature Center
She added owning such a pet is illegal. Lynx do not make good house pets, she said, and people shouldn’t be fooled by their cuteness.
“They’re very cute and very sweet when they are young, but when they become adults, they’re not pack animals,” Bendicksen said. “They become solitary. They become aggressive. They become territorial. They don’t want to be with their momma and daddy and family anymore. They want their own territory and do things on their own.”
The deep-wooded animals, which are not native to the area, are known to travel as far as 7 miles when they hunt, according to Bendicksen.
Eventually, the lynx will be moved to a sanctuary once an appropriate one is found. The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation are helping in the efforts to find Leonardo a new home.
“It is an unusual thing for us to have at Sweetbriar,” she said. “We deal with
native wildlife.”
Pictured from left,beach stewards Roberta Fabiano and Frank Fountain; Councilmember Kornreich and Nicole Pocchiare, Town of Brookhaven Environmental Educator. Photo from Town of Brookhaven
On July 19, Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich was at West Meadow Beach in Stony Brook to announce PSEG Long Island’s installation of an Osprey platform disk atop a utility pole on Trustees Road.
The platform was installed to accommodate a pair of ospreys that chose the pole to build a nest upon but constantly caused a disruption of electric service.
“The story of the osprey nest at the West Meadow Nature Preserve proves the adage that you can’t fight Mother Nature,” said Councilmember Kornreich.
“The first few attempts at nest building by this pair of ospreys resulted in blown fuses on the pole, and PSEGLI made several attempts to introduce elements of “hostile architecture” to discourage them from further attempts. The ospreys’ persistence paid off, and finally PSEGLI decided to install a raised platform on top of the pole which would permit the birds to safely build their structure without damaging the electrical service. The nest has been rebuilt and we look forward to this breeding pair’s return to West Meadow after their migration,” he said.
“It is so important that we find the balance between our use of the land and the preservation of this beautiful coast. To enjoy but also protect areas with unique ecology like that of West Meadow Beach and Creek. The installation of this platform for the Osprey’s Nest is a perfect example of how we can be more understanding and appreciative of the natural space we share. Let it be an inspiration for a trend of positive impact,” said Nicole Pocchiare, Town of Brookhaven Environmental Educator.
Many people assisted in the effort to maintain the nest in its present location, including Peter Fontaine, Town of Brookhaven Division of Environmental Protection Senior Analyst; John Turner, Town of Brookhaven Division of Environmental Protection Senior Analyst; Elaine Maas, Board of Directors, Four Harbors Audubon Society; and Lisanne Altmann and the installation crew from PSEG Lonf Island.
In the early evening of a mid-June day, eleven intrepid participants hiked through the globally rare Dwarf Pine Plains, a unique forest of pygmy pines found in the Long Island Pine Barrens. Their mission? To hear the night-time calls of the “moonbirds” — Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will’s-widows (or “whips” and “chucks” in birding vernacular), ringing out over the dwarf pines. For these nocturnal birds, the central Pine Barrens is their Long Island stronghold.
We know for the Whip-poor-will, and suspect for the Chuck-will’s-widow, their reproductive cycle is tied to the phases of the moon. “Whips” typically mate shortly after the full moon in May and the young hatch about 10 days before the next full moon in June. As the moon moves through its waxing phase and its reflected light gains in strength, whip-poor-wills can see better at night enabling them to hunt more efficiently for the moths and large beetles they eat and feed to their young. During this active time both species vocalize, their onomatopoeiac calls repeated often — one student reported a whip-poor-will calling 1,088 times consecutively! No wonder their common names were derived from the calls they make!
While their calls were very much appreciated by the night’s participants, it hasn’t always been the case their calls were welcome sounds. Superstition and meaning abound. A popular belief claimed that whoever hears a whip-poor-will will soon die; a variation portends a death of someone the listener knows. Or a whip-poor-will calling outside a house meant the death of an inhabitant, and perhaps, allowing the bird to grab their soul as it departs their body, which if they did would lead to further calling by the bird. If the bird failed in capturing the soul it would fall silent. Other legends imparted only bad luck but not death to the hearer of a call.
Another legend has it that a person with back ailments who does somersaults in cadence with the whip-poor-will’s call will see their back problems soon cured (makes you wonder, though, if a person could do somersaults every two to three seconds then maybe their back wasn’t in such bad shape to begin with?).
Another “first of the year call” legend meant good luck — if you made a wish upon hearing your first call then that wish would come true. In Louisiana gardeners would use the date of the first call of the whip-poor-will as a guide to planting garden peas.
According to folklore legend, whip-poor-wills had importance to single women. If an unhitched woman heard her first whip-poor-will call of the year but the bird then went immediately silent, she would stay single all year long; but if she was quick enough to wish to be married upon hearing the call she would soon be so. Still another legend notes that if a single woman hears a whip-poor-will call before morning light and another whip-poor-will responds, her “future man” will think of her that day.
Native Americans were also intrigued by whip-poor-wills. The Iroquois, for example, believed that moccasin flowers (pink lady’s slippers) were the shoes of whip-poor-wills while Utes believed whip-poor-wills were gods of the night.
Henry David Thoreau had a different, more basic take on a whip-poor-will’s call: “It could mean many things, according to the wealth of myth surrounding this night flyer. The note of the whippoorwill borne over the fields is the voice with which the woods and moonlight woo me” he said.
“Whips” and “Chucks” belong to a group of birds known as “goatsuckers”, a name derived centuries ago from the mistaken belief they use their large, supple, flesh-lined mouths to suck on the teats of goats. They were even accused of blinding or killing livestock once they latched on! This perception of “goat-sucking” isn’t totally off-base since the goatsucker name developed in Europe where residents often observed European nightjars flying around goat pens. They weren’t there to latch onto goat teats but rather were likely attracted to the insects stirred up by the goats.
Even the family of birds these species belong to — the Caprimulgidae —underscore this mistaken connection. Capra in Latin means goat and mulgare means “to milk”. Even a very wise person, Aristotle, apparently believed the bird-goat connection noting: “Flying to the udders of she-goats, it sucks them and so it gets its name”.
In addition to Whip-poor-will’s and Chuck-will-widow’s there are six other members belonging to this family in North America — Buff-collared Nightjar, Common Poorwill, Common Pauraque and Common, Lesser, and Antillean Nighthawks — and three occur on Long Island — “whips”, “chucks” and Common Nighthawks. This latter species is a very rare breeder on Long Island, if at all, but passes through in fall migration in the low thousands, as evidenced by the recent annual totals at the Nighthawk Watch conducted at the Stone Bridge in Frank Melville Memorial Park in Setauket by the Four Harbors Audubon Society.
These North American goatsuckers can be grouped into two categories: nightjars and nighthawks. “Whips” and “chucks” are nightjars — they have more rounded wings and plumper bodies than their nighthawk brethren, and also have large rictal bristles lining each side of their mouths, similar to cat whiskers, that assist them in catching larger prey. Nighthawks lack these bristles which are actually highly modified feathers.
While nighthawks like the Common Nighthawk generally feed on small aerial insects as they zip around — gnats, midges, mosquitoes, and the like — nightjars, so called due to the jarring call of some species, feed on larger insects, bigger moths and beetles mostly, flying up from the ground or from a perch. Chuck-will’s-widows are also known to eat birds and lizards. When viewed in a picture the birds appear to possess small mouths because of their small bills. But looks can be deceiving as their mouths are enormous. In fact, the genus Antrostomus means “cavern mouth”.
One of the distinctive features of both “whips” and “chucks” are their cryptic coloration. They blend in remarkably well with the leaf litter on the forest floor, a good thing since they are ground nesting birds and they and their eggs (typically two) and chicks are more vulnerable to predation.
There is available on the Internet one photograph of a whip-poor-will on the forest floor and it is simply indistinguishable, in another closer photo the bird is partially revealed; it’s not until a second, even closer photo that the bird’s face and elongated body can be clearly seen.
This ground nesting habit is one reason why both species have declined. As Long Island becomes more developed and natural areas get fragmented by development, animals associated with that development — namely dogs, feral and free ranging pet cats, and wild animals such as raccoons attracted to easier food in suburban areas — frequent wild areas adjacent to the homes preying on a variety of vulnerable species including these nightjars.
A reduction in the abundance of their insect prey appears to be another contributing cause. From 1980-1985 New York conducted its first statewide breeding bird survey; it replicated the effort in 2000-2005. In the first survey whip-poor-wills were detected in 564 quadrangles (one square mile of land); in the latter survey the species was detected in only 241 quadrangles, a reduction of 57%. A similar trend occurred with the Chuck-will’s-widow, with a 62% reduction. A third bird survey began in 2020 and will be completed in 2025; at that time we’ll have an up-to-date picture of the status of these two nightjars.
Contrast this with John James Audubon’s 1838 account: “Hundreds are often heard at the same time in different parts of the woods, each trying to out-do the others; and when you are told that the notes of this bird may be heard at the distance of several hundred yards, you may form an idea of the pleasure which every lover of nature must feel during the time when this chorus is continued. Description is incapable of conveying to your mind any accurate idea of the notes of this bird, much less of the feelings which they excite”.
As I walked back to the car, ruminating about the experience of the “moonbirds” calling beneath the Strawberry Moon, some close enough to cause excitement, a random thought popped into mind — how human experience can be so enriched when we connect with other forms of life we allow to co-exist. May whip-poor-wills and chuck-will’s-widows call under full moons for many decades to come, serving all the while as harbingers of life, not death.
A resident of Setauket, John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
The temperatures at the poles are heating up more rapidly than those at the equator. Pixabay photo
By Daniel Dunaief
On any given day, heat waves can bring record-breaking temperatures, while winter storms can include below average cold temperatures or snow.
Edmund Chang. Photo from SBU
Weather and climate experts don’t generally make too much of a single day or even a few days amid an otherwise normal trend. But, then, enough of these exceptional days over the course of years can skew models of the climate, which refers to average temperature and atmospheric conditions for a region.
If the climate is steady, “we should see approximately the same number of hot and cold records being broken,” said Edmund Chang, Professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. “Over the past few decades, we have seen many more hot records being broken than cold records, indicating the climate is getting hotter.”
Recent heat
Indeed, just last week, before a heatwave hit the northeastern United States, the United Kingdom reported the hottest day on record, with the temperature at Heathrow Airport reaching above 104 degrees.
Erinna Bowman, who grew up in Stony Brook and has lived in London since 2009, said the temperature felt “like a desert,” with hot, dry heat radiating up in the urban setting. Most homes in London don’t have air conditioning, although public spaces like supermarkets and retail stores do.
“I’m accustomed to the summer getting quite hot, so I was able to cope,” said Bowman. Indeed, London is usually considerably cooler during the summer, with average temperatures around 73 degrees.
Michael Jensen. Photo from BNL
News coverage of the two extraordinarily hot days in London “was very much framed in the context of a changing climate,” Bowman said. The discussion of a hotter temperature doesn’t typically use the words “climate change,” but, instead, describes the phenomenon as “global heating.”
For climate researchers in the area, the weather this summer has also presented unusual challenges.
Brookhaven National Laboratory meteorologist Michael Jensen spent four years planning for an extensive study of convective clouds in Houston, in a study called Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions, or Tracer.
“Our expectation is that we would be overwhelmed” with data from storms produced in the city, he said. “That’s not what we’re experiencing.”
The weather, which has been “extremely hot and extremely dry,” has been more typical of late August or early September. “This makes us wonder what August is going to look like,” he said.
Jensen, however, is optimistic that his extensive preparation and numerous pieces of equipment to gather meteorological data will enable him to collect considerable information.
Warming at the poles
Broadly speaking, heat waves have extended for longer periods of time in part because the temperatures at the poles are heating up more rapidly than those at the equator. The temperature difference between the tropics and the poles causes a background flow from west to east that pushes storms along, Chang explained.
The North Pole, however, has been warming faster than the tropics. A paper by his research group showed that the lower temperature gradient led to a weakening of the storm track.
When summer Atlantic storms pass by, they provide relief from the heat and can induce more clouds that can lead to cooler temperatures. Weakening these storms can lead to fewer clouds and less cooler air to relieve the heat, Chang added.
Rising sea levels
Malcolm Bowman. Photo from SBU
Malcolm Bowman, who is Erinna Bowman’s father and is Distinguished Service Professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, believes the recent ice melting in Greenland, which has been about 10 degrees above normal, could lead to a rise in sea levels of about one inch this summer. “It will slowly return to near normal as the fresh water melt spreads slowly over all the world’s oceans,” he added.
Bowman, who has studied sea level rises and is working on mitigation plans for the New York area in the event of a future major storm, is concerned about the rest of the hurricane season after the level of warming in the oceans this summer.
“Those hurricanes which follow a path over the ocean, especially following the Gulf Stream, will remain strong and may gather additional strength from the heat of the underlying water,” he explained in an email.
Bowman is the principal investigator on a project titled “Long Island South Shore Sea Gates Study.”
He is studying the potential benefit of six possible sea gates that would be located across inlets along Nassau and Suffolk County. He also suggests that south shore sand dunes would need to be built up to a height of 14 feet above normal high tide.
Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers has come up with a tentatively selected plan for New York Harbor that it will release some time in the fall. Bowman anticipates the study will be controversial as the struggle between green and grey infrastructure — using natural processes to manage the water as opposed to sending it somewhere else — heats up.
As for the current heat waves, Bowman believes they are a consistent and validating extension of climate change.
Model simulations
In his lab, Chang has been looking at model simulations and is trying to understand what physical processes are involved. He is comparing these simulations with observations to determine the effectiveness of these projections.
To be sure, one of the many challenges of understanding the weather and climate is that numerous factors can influence specific conditions.
“Chaos in the atmosphere could give rise to large variations in weather” and to occasional extremes, Chang said.
Before coming to any conclusions about longer term patterns or changes in climate, Chang said he and other climate modelers examine collections of models of the atmosphere to assess how likely specific conditions may occur due to chaos even without climate change.
“We have to rule out” climate variability to understand and appreciate the mechanisms involved in any short term changes in the weather, he added.
Still, Chang said he and other researchers are certain that high levels of summer heat will be a part of future climate patterns.
“We are confident that the increase in temperature will result in more episodes of heat waves,” he said.
Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker has self-published a children’s picture book on ocean pollution titled Below the Ocean: Keeping Our Sea Friends Safe. The book targets young children ages 2-10 years and provides an engaging story about a young seal and her encounters with ocean pollution.
Leg. Sarah Anker
“Having raised 3 children and knowing how important it is to teach our kids about respecting and maintaining our environment, I decided to take the plunge into writing this book, as well as additional children’s environmental books. Long before I ran for public office, I was involved in beach cleanups, advocating for clean water and air, recycling our garbage and preserving open space. We all need to do more, and I hope this book will inspire children and their parents to be environmental superheroes,” said Anker.
The illustrator, Lily Liu, is an award-winning artist who has provided illustrations for several top-selling children’s books. The vibrant colors and adorable characters capture your attention as the main character, Sophia the Seal, encounters ocean garbage and learns how it is affecting sea life and our ocean.
Plastics have been on Earth for close to 70 years and in that time, we have created over 9 billion tons of plastic waste. Most plastics are not recycled and end up as garbage in landfills and in our ocean. Below the Ocean not only informs young readers about ocean pollution, but it also provides insight on what they can do to keep our ocean clean and safe and encourages them to be a Sea Hero. The book is available online at www.amazon.com. For more information go to www.Ankerbooks.com.
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Families with young children are invited to join Leg. Anker for a book launch at Comsewogue Public Library, 170 Terryville Road, Port Jefferson Station on Thursday, July 28 at 2:30 p.m. The educational presentation will feature a reading of the book, a Q&A, book signing and crafts. The first 25 books will be given out for free. To register for this event, call the library at 631-928-1212 or email [email protected].
With continued hot and dry weather leading to excessive early morning water use that is pushing water infrastructure to its limits, the Suffolk County Water Authority is urging residents to immediately take steps to conserve water.
Though it is always important to conserve water, during hot and dry periods it is imperative to do so, as residents tend to overwater lawns and set their irrigation timers to the same period of time in the early morning hours. To make sure there is enough water for all residents as well as firefighters and other emergency services, residents are urged to:
• Water only on odd or even days. Lawns do not need to be watered daily. In fact, it can be counterproductive to a healthy lawn, as less frequent watering leads to deeper root growth.
• Set lawn irrigation timers to activate at times other than between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., which is the time of peak water use. With so many people setting their timers to activate during these hours, water tanks can be nearly emptied by the end of the peak period. This can lead to insufficient water pressure.
• Use a rain sensor or smart sprinkler controller to properly manage lawn watering. These devices not only help to make sure you do not overwater your lawn, but they can save you money on your water bill. SCWA also offers account credit of up to $50 for the purchase of water-saving devices. One of their experts will even come to your home, free of charge, to assess your water use and provide you guidance about how to save water.
You can find out more about SCWA’s WaterWise programs and schedule a waterwise checkup at www.scwa.com.
“If everyone pitches in, we’ll have plenty of water to meet the needs of Suffolk residents and emergency services,” said SCWA Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Szabo. “So please do your part.”
Warmer winters are likely contributing to the steady rise of tick populations and the spread of tick-borne diseases in the area.
Illustration by Kyle Horne @kylehorneart
By Chris Mellides
As winters on Long Island become milder due to climate change, the existing tick problem on Long Island will likely intensify.
Already, municipalities along the North Shore have engaged the public to discuss the dangers of ticks and consider possible remedies.
During a Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees meeting July 5, one concerned resident said, “Another child just got bit by a lone star tick and she can’t eat meat for the rest of her life.”
The meat allergy in question is Alpha-gal syndrome. AGS is a tick-borne disease commonly transmitted by lone star ticks, which are commonly carried by deer, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The instances of the prevalent Lyme disease have nearly doubled in the years 1991-2018, based on findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the climate becomes warmer, the size of tick populations and the spread of tick-borne diseases are projected to increase.
Village trustee Rebecca Kassay, whose background is in environmental community outreach, is well aware of the problem that these pests pose to the larger community. She considers recent public interest in tick activity to be worth the board’s attention.
“As time goes on and as climate change is affecting our area, one of the effects is these more mild winters,” Kassay said. “When there’s not a deep freeze for a prolonged period of time, the ticks don’t have that die-off like they used to and, as that happens, we’re seeing a steady increase throughout Long Island and the Northeast of tick populations.”
Wooded areas and athletic fields are more prone to being havens for these external parasites that are carried by wild animals like mice and deer and typically affect mammals, though other organisms are also fair game to these blood-feeding, eight-legged insects.
“I’m going to be looking into messaging, making sure that there’s accurate information that gets out to parents,” Kassay said, adding, “What are ticks? What are the dangers of [them]? And how important it is to regularly check for ticks both on their children and themselves?”
Barbara Sakovich, Port Jeff clerk, shared that while the village does not spray for ticks, private homeowners are permitted to spray their own properties.
Referring to the July 5 meeting, Sakovich said in a statement, “Deputy Mayor Snaden, as well as an attendee in the audience, discussed tick tubes and that they can be somewhat effective to manage the tick problem in the mice population.” The village clerk added, “A lint roller can be effective in removing ticks from clothing after being outside.”
The New York State Department of Health lists several diseases known to be carried by ticks. However, the severity of symptoms has raised a number of eyebrows. Lyme disease is the most common but anaplasmosis, rickettsiosis, ehrlichiosis and tularemia are also contracted via bioactive molecules in tick saliva.
Tick bites affect parents and children alike, and the Port Jefferson Village website recommends that afflicted residents should “call your physician as soon as possible so appropriate preventative treatment can be given.”
“There’s a vigilance and an awareness that needs to be spread and hopefully our community will not be learning about these things through personal experience,” Kassay said. “Rather, [we need] neighbors talking to neighbors and parents talking to parents and sharing this information so that through information we can prevent other children from suffering [from AGS].”
The first is of a spinner shark swimming among a school of bunker. Photo from Chris Paparo
After four confirmed shark bites in the last three weeks on the south shore of Long Island, state and local authorities are actively monitoring swimming areas for these apex predators, with lifeguards, helicopters and drones on the lookout for a variety of sharks.
A sandbar shark with a satellite tag. Photo from Chris Paparo
“As New Yorkers and visitors alike head to our beautiful Long Island beaches to enjoy the summer, our top priority is their safety,” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said in a statement. “We are taking action to expand patrols for sharks and protect beachgoers from potentially dangerous situations.”
Earlier this month, a lifeguard was engaged in a safety exercise at Smith Point beach when a shark bit him in the chest. A paddle boarder, meanwhile, was bitten by a shark in Smith Bay on Fire Island.
Responding to the potential threat of interactions between swimmers and sharks, Hochul added several safety measures. Park Police boats will patrol waters around the island, while federal, state and county partnerships will share resources and information about shark sightings and better support to identify sharks in the area.
State park safety guidelines will suspend swimming after a shark sighting so the shoreline can be monitored with drones. Swimming may resume at least an hour after the last sighting.
Shark researchers said these predatory fish have always been around Long Island.
The southern side of Long Island likely has more species of shark than the north.
“The Atlantic Ocean, on the south shore of Long Island, has seen a notable increase in shark activity and sightings over the last two years,” a spokesman for Gov. Hochul explained in an email. The Long Island Sound, on the north shore, “has sharks but not this level of activity.”
The three most common sharks around Long Island are the sandbar shark, the dusky shark and the sand tiger shark, said Christopher Paparo, Southampton Marine Science Center manager at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.
Shark expert Dr. Robert Hueter and his team were tagging and gathering data on great white sharks in 2021 in Nova Scotia. Photo fromOCEARCH/ Chris Ross.
Conservation success
The increase in shark populations around the island is a “conservation success story,” particularly because sharks around the world are on the decline.
“We have something special in New York,” Paparo said.
From the 1950s until the 1970s, sharks around the area were heavily fished to the point where the populations declined precipitously.
At the same time, cleaning up the waters around Long Island by reducing ocean dumping and enforcing regulations has made it possible for the sharks and the fish they hunt, such as bunker, to recover.
“The habitat has improved and it can house more sharks in the summertime” than earlier, said Dr. Robert Hueter, chief scientist at OCEARCH, a global nonprofit organization collecting unprecedented data on sharks to help return the oceans to balance and abundance.
“Finally, a good story in marine conservation and a return of our oceans to health and abundance,” Hueter added.
While shark attacks generate considerable headlines, the threat from these marine fish is considerably less than it is for other dangers, such as driving to the beach, which produces far more injuries due to car accidents.
Last year, Paparo said, fewer than 100 shark attacks occurred throughout the world.
“I understand the fear of sharks,” driven in part by movies about them, Paparo said. But “people aren’t afraid of their cars” and they aren’t as focused on drownings, even though about 4,000 people drown in a typical year in the United States.
Hueter said he typically cringes around the Fourth of July holiday because that week is often the height of the beach season, when the larger number of people in habitats where sharks live can lead to bites.
More often than not, the damage sharks around Long Island inflict on humans involves bites, rather than attacks.
“Long Island is becoming the new Florida,” Hueter said. In Florida, people are bitten on their ankles or hands, as small to mid-sized sharks are not interested in people, he added.
While sharks have increased in numbers around Long Island, so have marine mammals, such as whales. On a recent morning last week, Paparo saw three humpback whales before he came to work.
People hunted whales, just as they did sharks, through the 70s, causing their numbers to decline.
Shark expert Dr. Robert Hueter and his team were tagging and gathering data on great white sharks in 2021 in Nova Scotia. Photo fromOCEARCH/ Chris Ross.
Measures to lower risk
People concerned about sharks can take several steps to reduce the risk of coming into contact with them.
Residents and guests should try not to swim at dawn and dusk when sharks typically feed more often.
Additionally, swimmers who encounter a school of bunker, also known as Atlantic menhaden, should avoid the area, as sharks might mistake a person as a larger and slower swimming part of such a school.
Sea birds hovering over an area may be an indication of schooling bunker, a Hochul spokesman explained.
While it’s less likely here than in Cape Cod, seal colonies are a potential threat, as they can attract adult great white sharks. Long Island has become home to some juvenile great white sharks, which are about 4 feet in length.
The governor’s office also encouraged people to swim in lifeguarded areas and with a buddy.
If a shark bites, experts suggest getting out of the water. A swimmer can try to fend off a shark by hitting it in the nose. People should also avoid swimming near areas where others are fishing.
Shark bites, Hueter said, require medical attention because of the damaged skin and the bacteria from shark teeth.
“You want to get good medical help to clean the wound” if a shark bites, Hueter said.
Still rebuilding
Hueter and Paparo added that the number of sharks still hasn’t reached the same levels as they had been decades ago.
“We do have some healthy shark populations,” Hueter said. “Others are still rebuilding. We are not even close to what they used to be if you go back before the overfishing in the 1950s and 1960s.”
Due to heavy rainfall yesterday and rain forecast for Monday, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services has issued an advisory against bathing at 47 beaches listed below. The advisory is based on the potential that bacteria is in excess of New York State standards.
The beaches covered by the advisory are located in areas that are heavily influenced by stormwater runoff from the surrounding watersheds or adjacent tributaries, and, because of their location in an enclosed embayment, experience limited tidal flushing.
Health officials recommend that bathing and other water contact be suspended in affected areas until the waters have been flushed by two successive tidal cycles, at least a 24 hour period, after the rain has ended. This advisory will be lifted Tuesday, July 20, 2022, unless sampling reveals elevated levels of bacteria persisting beyond the 24-hour period.
Additionally, Bayport Beach, which closed on Friday, and four more beaches that closed on Saturday remain closed due to excess bacteria. The four beaches that closed on Saturday include Amityville Village Beach, Tanner Park Beach in Copiague, Benjamin Beach in Bay Shore, and Ronkonkoma Beach in the Town of Islip. The beaches will reopen when bacteria subsides.
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