Last week, video of a large thresher shark beneath Long Island’s Atlantic Beach Bridge surfaced on social media. The footage, recorded by Billy Palazzo (@billy_palazzo), shows an approximately 12- to 15-foot thresher (from snout to tip of tail), frantically thrashing around near the bridge pilings. It’s not the first time a thresher shark has been spotted in the backwaters of the south shore’s barrier islands, and it won’t be the last.
Though rare, thresher sightings have increased in recent years, particularly during the late spring and early summer when they follow schools of adult menhaden into shallow water. Back in 2018, two boaters shared their footage of a 6-foot thresher shark cruising around in Zach’s Bay—a shallow cove next to Jones Beach Theater in the town of Wantagh. Other anglers have reported more recent thresher shark sightings just east of Jones Bay Bridge in Sloop Channel. However, the shark in Palazzo’s video is significantly longer than a 6-foot juvenile, and the clip sparked debate among local anglers and shark enthusiasts, who argued whether or not the fish was healthy.
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At first, the shark appears to be feeding, but what it could be eating is unclear. Had it torn through a school of menhaden (a.k.a. bunker) as threshers are known to do, the baitfish likely would have been visible fleeing the scene. Like many schooling forage fish, menhaden tend to “spray” from the water as they elude predators like sharks, whales, striped bass and bluefish. After speaking with some local anglers during the Manhattan Cup in New York last weekend, the general consensus among them was that the shark seemed disoriented and wounded or sick rather than feeding. And unfortunately, it appears they were correct.
Just hours after the video surfaced on Instagram on June 3, a struggling thresher shark of the same size washed up in Jones Inlet at West End 2, according to video footage on the West End Facebook group page. While it is unconfirmed, it would appear the two videos are of the same fish. East Rockaway Inlet—near where the shark was originally spotted—is connected to Jones Inlet by Reynold’s Channel, so it is reasonable to suggest that the shark made its way east where, eventually, it wound up stranded against the rocks by the Coast Guard Station at West End 2.
I spoke with a New York Environmental Conservation Officer who responded to the initial report, and learned that the tide eventually swept the shark back out into the inlet. The fishermen on site at Jones West End 2 relayed to the ECO that the shark had a large gash on one side of its head, which was probably the result of a vessel strike. The officer was aware of the sighting at Atlantic Beach Bridge and agreed that it was more than likely the same shark. It has since been spotted swimming near the canal in Island Park.
Whether you’re operating a boat in calm, protected backwaters or in the open ocean, be aware of your surroundings and travel at safe speeds. You never know what’s swimming just beneath the surface.
If you spot a shark injured, in distress, or in an unusual place, it is best to report it to the New York ECOs in your respective region. Find a full roster of NY Environmental Conservation Officers and their contact information here.
I actually put this very shark back into the water and recorded the entire experience