A woman injured this week in waters off Jones Beach State Park was likely bitten by a shark, authorities said, in one of the first reported encounters of the Long Island beach season.

The 20-year-old, whom authorities did not identify, sustained minor lacerations to her left foot and leg Wednesday and was taken to Nassau University Medical Center, where she was treated and released, said George Gorman, regional director of state parks on Long Island. Biologists, working off photographs of the injuries and witness accounts, determined that the animal involved was likely a juvenile sand tiger shark.

Gorman, who oversees beaches that draw more than 10 million visitors each year, said of the incident in a Friday interview: “Hopefully this was the first and last of the season.”

Just one shark bite was reported last year on Long Island, by a fisherman near the Island Park fishing pier. In 2023, there were at least five reported bites on Long Island. 

The state's Department of Environmental Conservation does not maintain a record of the number of shark sightings, but authorities have temporarily closed local beaches several times in recent years after suspected shark sightings.

Worldwide, there were 47 unprovoked shark bites in 2024, well off the 10-year average of 70, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.

Wednesday's incident occurred around 4:15 p.m., when the woman was waist deep in surf, according to a parks news release. Lifeguards and emergency medical technicians responded immediately and lifeguards temporarily closed the beach to swimming.

Lifeguards found no trace of what parks officials called “dangerous marine life” in a subsequent drone-assisted search. The beach reopened to swimming Thursday, though heightened lifeguard and drone patrols are continuing, Gorman said.

Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said the slashing bite pattern he saw in photographs of the woman's leg was atypical for most sharks, which have multiple rows of concentrically arranged teeth and leave regularly spaced compression marks. But the ocean bottom at Jones Beach — sandy, rather than rocky — likely ruled out his first guess at a culprit, which was an eel, he said. Also, Naylor said, "The victim said she felt her leg was clamped by something, so we know it has to be an animal with a large enough jaw to clamp," which was consistent with a shark bite. Finally, he said, there are nearby sand tiger shark nursery grounds, including the Great South Bay.

Sand tiger sharks are known to practice "inter-uterine cannibalism," Naylor said, with the dominant embryo eating its unfortunate siblings, and are born nearly three feet long. "Juveniles are kind of stupid," he said. "My guess is, if it is a shark, it bit gingerly, didn’t like what it was experiencing and turned its head away quickly."  

Sand tiger sharks are commonly found in New York waters and prey mostly on fish, crabs and mollusks. They can grow up to 10½ feet and live 15 years or longer, according to the state environmental conservation department.

To minimize the risk of shark interactions, authorities recommend that swimmers avoid areas with seals, schools of fish or murky water. They also recommend swimming in groups and staying close to shore.