Sharks are making a ‘comeback’ on the Long Island Sound — leaving boaters and swimmers scared

As shark sightings continue to rise at New York City beaches, some experts are pointing out the predators’ presence off Long Island’s North Shore as well .

“They’re not right offshore of the beaches, but they can come in pretty close to shore,” fisheries biologist Jon Vander Werff told the Hartford Courant .

The Long Island Sound, which also includes waterfront communities in Westchester County and Connecticut, is home to five shark species: the spiny dogfish, the smooth dogfish, the dusky shark, the brown shark and the sand tiger shark.

The Sound also has an abundance of prey that the sharks enjoy snacking on, such as bluefish and menhaden.

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Although Vander Werff noted that “none of them are aggressive,” behavior by swimmers can still make waves.

“I would say if they were provoked, like, for example, you’re swimming and you kick one, they might come around [for] an exploratory bite.”

Meanwhile, seasoned diver John Langlois, owner of Enfield Scuba and Water Sports, also threw water on the danger.

He said the odds of getting bitten are 264 million to one.

“When you look at how many, they get a bad reputation, because as soon as somebody gets bit, it sounds like hundreds of people are getting bit, but they’re not,” he said.

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“And there’s so few bites that what makes them so bad of course is the publicity.”

However, while uncommon, larger sharks can make their way into the comparatively calm body of water, too.

A fierce great white was reported off the shore of Greenwich, Conn. in 2019.

Although the sea beast’s presence was a bit of a fluke, Vander Werff admits that conditions in the Sound are becoming more ideal for such sharks.

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“The water quality is there for them and the ecosystem has been rebounding from years’ past, where there hasn’t been a lot of sharks,” he said.

“Some people might not think that’s a good thing. But as a fisheries biologist, I look at that as an excellent thing because the ecosystem is rebounding, and now there’s enough resources for the sharks to be surviving in Long Island Sound.”

One species becoming particularly more “abundant” are sand bar sharks, said marine fisheries biologist David Molnar of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“Some of it’s their biology. It takes between one and three years to have pups, and they only have a couple of pups when they do pup,” he said of their “comeback.”

“We only see them in the summertime. They’re here now; they’re popping.”

He added that smooth dogfish are also currently present, but will move out when the water cools in the fall and winter.

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