Good morning. Today is Friday. Today is sharks and space – sharks off Long Island, and an auction of property that astronaut Buzz Aldrin brought with him on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
There are swimmers and surfers on Long Island who probably can’t escape the heart-pounding theme from “Jaws” right now.
Two people were bitten in apparent shark attacks 20 miles apart on Wednesday. On Thursday, a lifeguard on duty who was out to catch the waves early in the morning reported that a shark had “touched” him. A few hours later, another shark sighted almost in the same place, another about a mile away for a few hours and an hour or so about 15 miles later.
All of this makes what another lifeguard said sound like an understatement. Lifeguard Zach Gallo, who returned to work on Thursday for the first time since he was bitten by a shark on July 3, announced.
This is already a summer enhanced shark patrol, with drones sent up to look down on Long Island’s long chain of beaches. And even if the drones don’t see the sharks or they don’t bite, Long Islanders are aware they are there: A 10-foot mako shark washed up on Point Lookout over a Day weekend. Memorial.
The surfboard collision happened a few miles west of where the two incidents occurred on Wednesday. George Gorman, a spokesman for state parks on Long Island, said off-duty rescuers were surfing off Field 3 at Robert Moses State Park at around 8 a.m.
Gorman said a drone was sent to sweep the water. The operator saw 9 rays but no sharks. Even so, swimming was banned until 9:30 a.m. and repeated for an hour at midday after another sighting was reported. After that, another drone flight also saw no sharks.
That made Thursday less dramatic than Wednesday, when a shark knocked out Shawn Donnelly, a lawyer surfing before heading to the office.
He fought back, slapping the shark. It swam away, and a wave brought Donnelly to the beach.
He didn’t realize he had been bitten and walked to a rescue station, where he described the encounter. “They were like, ‘Come on,’ he said.
About 11 hours later and 20 miles away, a 49-year-old Arizona man was standing in waist-deep water when, police said, a shark swooped in from behind and bit him twice. He managed to get out of the water and was taken by helicopter to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Steve Bellone, county executive in Suffolk County, said the incidents added “something new to the normal”.
Robert Hueter, principal scientist with Ocarch, an organization that researches and tracks marine species, says that shark populations are recovering after falling by as much as 90% between the 1970s and 1990s, depending on the species. . “Are we going back to the 1950s or 1960s?” he say. “No, we’re not even close to that. Those who are no longer alive then think there are more sharks than ever before, but really, the ecosystem is still being reset.”
But he also says that with climate change, shark populations that normally venture no farther north than the Chesapeake Bay area have moved up the coast to the New York Bight, the wedge formed by the coastline. of Long Island and New Jersey.
Gallo, 33 years old and has been a lifeguard at Smith Point for 10 years, doesn’t seem to have any feelings for the shark that strangled him. “I thought this was just a curious animal,” he said, “and I just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”
He admits he was a little shaken when he returned to Smith Point Park. He said that when he arrived in the morning, he felt “a little bit, like” Whoa, I’ll be back in the water today. “
He said that he and the lifeguards who got into the water with him had words for any sharks that may have heard: “Who’s ready for Round 2?”
Weather
Enjoyed a sunny day in the mid-’80s. The evenings were mostly clear, with the lowest temperatures in the 70s.
PARKING OUTSIDE
Valid until August 15 (Hang Thuan Festival).
Latest New York News
For sale, a coat that has gone out of this world
The label says the jacket is size ML and made on December 18, 1968.
The label doesn’t say who wore it, or where.
The gift is a nameplate on the front that says “E. Aldrin,” to astronaut Edwin (Buzz). It’s made of the same Teflon-coated material as the spacesuit he and Neil Armstrong replaced with for their moonwalk. (The Apollo 11 liftoff took place 53 years ago tomorrow; Wednesday is the anniversary of the moon walk.)
This jacket goes on sale July 26 at Sotheby’s, it’s expected to cost between $1 million and $2 million. Other items from Aldrin’s career are also on this list, including a checklist he used during spacewalks during the 1966 Gemini 12 I mission ($15,000 to $20,000. ); the flight plan for Apollo 11 that he carried in space ($100,000 to $150,000); and a felt-tip pen he used on a circuit breaker adjust electrical power for the lunar module to take off after a moon walk. The switch on the breaker was broken somewhere along the way. “You can imagine what he was thinking,” said Cassandra Hatton, senior vice president of Sotheby’s. “This is the original Houston-we-have-a-problem.”
Aldrin recalls in the book “Men From Earth” (written with Malcolm McConnell) that “we were looking for something to punch holes in this circuit breaker.” He and Armstrong found an item that hasn’t been issued by NASA: a marker. Sotheby’s expects it, and the broken switch, to sell for between $1 million and $2 million.
As for Aldrin’s jacket, it was made to order months before take off, so Aldrin had to keep fit. “If you go to the party and the suit doesn’t fit anymore,” Hatton said, referring to the launch, “there is no last-minute change.”
She said Aldrin’s coat apparently didn’t make it to the cleaners – and eventually, to the National Air & Space Collection at the Smithsonian – along with the coats Armstrong and Michael Collins worn, making Aldrin the only possible mission-flying vest that can now be sold. “Maybe Buzz just walked out with his jacket on,” she said.
METROPOLITAN . Diary
Ladybug
Dear Diary:
It’s spring and the ladybugs have once again washed up on the Brighton coast. Where they come from, I don’t know. But every year you can see me harvesting them so I can release them into a more suitable environment.
One day a few years ago, I saw them surfing on a reed raft that the beach cleaner, the Barber Surf Rake, would roll into its crawl space as it walked along. Suddenly, I have a new quest.
As the car approached, I stood firm and waved for it to stop. The operator stared at me from the driver’s seat.
“Sir,” I said. “I know you don’t realize this, but you’re killing ladybugs.”
I held out my crate full of bugs, waiting for his angry reaction.
