Teen bitten by shark off New York island
NEW YORK -- Officials with the Town of Islip confirm a 13-year-old was bitten by a shark off Atlantique on Fire Island while boogie boarding on Wednesday.
It is one of two incidents reported on Fire Island.
The boy "stumbled out of the water" into a lifeguard tent where the lifeguard dressed puncture wounds, officials said. EMTs removed a piece of tooth from the boy's leg that is now being analyzed.
The boy is OK. He was able to walk on and off a police boat and was sent to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
The boy was part of a town camp. A ferry will bring the rest of the kids back to Bayshore at 3:30 at which time the chief lifeguard will be there to speak to parents and address the media.
Another incident is being investigated at Sailor Haven on Fire Island. In that case, a girl was bitten and suffered a bite wound to her leg.
She was able to walk to shore with assistance from her caregiver before she was taken to the hospital.
"My daughter was not even 10 feet off the shore up to her waist. All of the sudden I see her panicking, and I could see something -- I couldn't tell what it was, but it was kind of flapping about," Philip Polina, the girl's father, said.
Officials with the National Parks Service say there were bite marks on the victim "consistent with a large fish," but there was not a sighting of a shark in the area and the incident is not yet confirmed as a shark bite.
Fire Island National Seashore beaches are closed until further notice.
In a third possible shark sighting, the Superintendent at Jones Beach said swimmers have been evacuated from the water at Robert Moses State Park after a lifeguard spotted a shark. Swimming is prohibited while police continue to investigate.
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