Sharks!!! Coast Guard Says Beware

It's probably not what you want to hear as you head out for your Fourth of July trip to the beach, but the Coast Guard has issued a shark advisory for the waters off New England.

Just days after a fisherman caught a 7-foot great white shark off Massachusetts, the agency is warning swimmers and boaters to be alert.

"I have no doubt that a Great White Shark that swims into your comfort zone would surely find a splashing paddle or dangling hand inviting," First Coast Guard District recreational boating specialist Al Johnson said.

Shark attacks on humans in the Northeast are rare.

The last unprovoked shark attack off Massachusetts was in 1936, according to the Cape Cod Times.

The last report of a shark attack in Connecticut was on Aug. 24, 1960 in Seaside Park, off the coast of Bridgeport, according to records maintained by the Ichthyology Department at the University of Florida.

A 38-year-old Stratford man sought medical attention for what he said was a shark bike.

George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and web editor for the International Shark Attack File, said he would not discount what his colleagues deemed a shark bite, but what’s a little worrisome about the report is that shark attacks are “extremely rare” on the Long Island Sound and this was the only one in Connecticut.

The person to report the bike shark was also noted to have gone “shark hunting” in the past in New York, Burgess said.

“My colleagues 50 years ago has ruled it a shark attack. I’m not going to trump their call at this point,” he said.

There were, however, other sightings, he said, and there were more reports of people seeing fins.
 

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