A spokesman for the New York City Police Department said on Tuesday morning that the woman’s condition was “serious but stable.” The woman is believed to have lost about 20 pounds of flesh because of the bite, according to the police report.
Park officials described Monday’s shark attack as the first on Rockaway Beach “in recent memory.”There have been 20 unprovoked shark attacks in New York state since 1837, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File, a database of all known shark attacks.
But Monday’s shark bite marked the first confirmed attack in New York City since the 1950s, according to the Global Shark Attack File, an unofficial database of such encounters.
The last documented shark attack in the city recorded in that database was in 1958, when a man was bitten by a harpooned shark after provoking it.
“It’s not very common that we would see this,” said Gavin Naylor, the program director of the International Shark Attack File.
Persons:
“, ”, Gavin Naylor
Organizations:
New York City Police Department, Florida
Locations:
Rockaway, New York, New York City