Shark Sightings Give Pause

Last week, two teenagers were attacked by sharks on the Gulf Coast of Florida: A 14-year-old girl who was belly boarding far from shore was killed and a 16-year-old boy, attacked while fishing, lost his leg. So when lifeguards were alerted to sharks in and near the surf at local beaches over the weekend, swimmers were ordered out of the water, fast.

Strange as it may seem, very large sharks are spotted quite often this time of year between Wiborg's Beach in East Hampton and Amagansett. For reasons known only to them, basking sharks, some up to 20 feet long, like to cruise the area in single file with their mouths open. They are harmless, filter-feeding vegetarians, and as docile as cows, despite the shocks to the system their appearances have given surfers and bathers over the years.

On Saturday at about 1 p.m., a beachgoer at Wiborg's spotted a shark close to shore. Police were called, and they notified village lifeguards stationed at Main Beach. Two guards, Jay Brunner and Kevin Reale, raced to Wiborg's Beach by water scooter.

"Last year, I got in the water with one of the basking sharks - big, wide mouth. This was definitely different," Mr. Reale said. He said the 10 or 11-foot-long shark had a pointed nose and a curved tail fin, and was colored gray and black.

"I touched its dorsal fin and it slapped the side of the boat with its tail. It was three feet longer than the ski. It looked like a mako," Mr. Reale said, although he wasn't sure.

Guards ordered swimmers out of the water at Main Beach for about 90 minutes, so they could investigate further.

Swimmers were also told to leave the ocean at Atlantic Avenue and Indian Wells Beaches in Amagansett on Saturday afternoon to allow guards to investigate a second sighting. This time, it was a basking shark.

Sand sharks were spotted at the Atlantic Terrace beach in Montauk on Monday. Lifeguards went on the alert at Tiana Beach in Hampton Bays on Monday when a surfer said he had seen what he thought was a thresher shark about 150 yards from shore.

Rob Lambert, assistant chief of the East Hampton Town lifeguards, said yesterday that he was still hearing reports of troubling shadows at Wiborg's and Main Beaches. Mr. Lambert said he doubted that the creature was a mako shark, because they prefer to swim in warmer offshore waters. More likely it was a brown (dusky) or blue shark, he said.

A bull shark was thought to be responsible for the Florida attacks.

Mr. Lambert offered a theory about the shark sightings. At low tide, he said, small fish become trapped between a pair of sandbars just offshore - the second sandbar was created by this winter's storms, he said. Because the sharks like to eat the small fish, they follow them closer to shore than they would usually venture.