As New Yorkers flock to the beach for summer fun, some unexpected guests have been making quite a splash in the headlines. Shark sightings have seen a notable uptick in frequency at spots like Rockaway Beach, where city-operated drones have spotted our finned friends on a record number of occasions. According to information released by the parks department and reported by Gothamist, since July 1, sharks have been detected by these high-flying eyes nine times, leading to a cumulative 12 hours of beach closure.
This shark surveillance uptick isn't necessarily because the sharks have suddenly decided to visit the Rockaways en masse. The increased presence is largely thanks to more drones patrolling the skies, as experts and city officials have noted in recent statements. "The people flying these drones are now seeing what we've known and what we've been observing on these whale watching boats for a long time, is a really vibrant ecosystem just off the shore of New York City," Chris St. Lawrence, researcher with Gotham Whale, told Gothamist. The Department of Emergency Management is currently deploying four or more drone teams during the busiest beach days, highlights a report from Aries Dela Cruz, an official with the city's emergency management office.
For beachgoers, the experience can be, to put it mildly, a disruption. When drones, operated this time by the fire department, spotted a shark at Beach 102nd Street, an hour-long closure affecting 37 blocks was implemented. This response comes in the wake of more aggressive measures taken after an incident in 2023, when a swimmer was badly injured by a shark bite at the same beach. Coverage by NBC New York reminds us that these sightings, while concerning for some, serve as evidence of a thriving marine ecology right in New York City's aquatic backyard.
Despite the upsurge in drone-detected shark presence, important to note is the naturalness of these occurrences. Sharks have always been out there, and technology is simply bringing that reality into sharper focus. "The more we look for them – sharks has always been out there… but finding them is not a bad thing," commented Inspector Frank DiGiacomo, former head of the Technical Assistant Response Unit for the NYPD. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry, who championed the use of drones during his NYPD tenure, even defended the hour-long shut downs, insisting that knowing about a shark's proximity when you're a mere 100 feet away is knowledge worth having, as reported by Gothamist.
