Shark Drones Will Fly All Summer After Rockaway Beach Attack

QUEENS, NY — A fleet of shark-spotting drones and boats will scan Rockaway Beach all summer after the city's first shark attack in 70 years, officials said.

No sharks were spotted Wednesday morning, prompting parks officials to reopen Rockaway Beach for swimming after a daylong precautionary closure following the harrowing attack.

Teams of FDNY, NYPD and parks workers will continue the shark-spotting routine, helped by drones and boats, every morning this swimming season along Rockaway's miles of beach, said First Deputy Fire Commissioner Joseph Pfeifer.

"During that time before opening, if we spot a shark, then we'll make a decision to close the beach," he said.

The city's beaches open for swimming started at 10 a.m. each day during the summer.

The rare shark attack Monday left a 65-year-old woman — a Ukrainian immigrant named Tatyana Koltunyuk, according to a report by the New York Daily News —seriously injured with a gruesome bite wound to her leg.

Koltunyuk's family, in a statement reported by the Daily News, thanked rescuers who scrambled to pull her from the water 50 feet from shore and fashioned an impromptu tourniquet out of a pair of sweatpants and a rope.

"Our mother is grateful to be alive ... and we're all thankful to the lifeguards, emergency response workers, and team at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center," the family's statement read, according to the Daily News.

"We are deeply moved by the outpouring of support we have received, but for now we ask above all for everyone to respect our privacy as we focus all of our energies on helping her to recover."

The attack also rattled New Yorkers who had, until then, been unbothered by sharks since 1953.

Officials confirmed that a shark had also been spotted in the water Tuesday, when Rockaway Beach was closed for swimming. But they said there were no such sightings Wednesday morning, which prompted them to reopen the beach.

Pfeifer said warming temperatures from climate change, as well as cleaner water, appears to be drawing more wildlife, including sharks, toward New York City's shore.

"So, we're getting some schools of fish here," he said, before outlining the city's precautions to deal with the resulting sharks.

"We have eyes in the sky through our drones, through our helicopter. We have boats in the water, our fire boats, our harbor boats, the Coast Guard, and we're looking for sharks. And we can't forget we have people on land: our lifeguards."