A Long Island lifeguard was playing a victim in an ocean training exercise Sunday when he was attacked by a shark — and fought off the beast with his bare hands, officials said.

Smith Point Beach lifeguard Zack Gallo was bitten in the chest and right hand during his terrifying encounter with the 4- to 5-foot-long shark, said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone.

“He was playing the role of a victim, and in the midst of that, actually became a victim when this shark bite occurred,” Bellone said at a press conference.
Gallo fought off the shark by “punching down” on it, Bellone said, according to news reports.

The lifeguard’s hand wounds likely “occurred as he was beating off the shark,’’ Bellone said. “At that point, the interaction ended.”

Other guards already in the water for the exercise rushed to help Gallo, who was “bleeding significantly,” but the victim was miraculously able to walk out of the water unassisted, the pol said.

Smith Point Beach was closed Sunday after a “shark-related incident” involving a lifeguard.

The injured lifeguard was then bandaged and taken to a local hospital, Bellone said.

“Fortunately, he is doing well,’’ Bellone said. “He’s in very good spirits at Southside Hospital … getting some stitches.

“Ironically, if there was any moment to have an interaction with a shark like that, where you end up getting bitten, that is the moment, where he was playing a victim, and there were actually some of our other lifeguards in this training exercise who are already coming out, and in midst of the incident, he all of a sudden became an actual victim,’’ Bellone said, according to Newsday.

The beach was closed after the attack.

Bellone says authorities had a drone out monitoring the water later and saw a shark, but, “We don’t know if it was the same shark or not.’’

A second beach east of Smith Point, Cupsogue, was also closed Sunday “due to dangerous marine activity,” county parks officials said.

Three days earlier, nearby Jones Beach in Nassau County saw a swimmer suffer a “possible shark bite,” prompting county police there to increase beach patrols ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The Town of Hempstead also formed a “Shark Patrol” after a fisherman spotted a 10-foot Mako shark on Memorial Day weekend about 11 miles west of Jones Beach.

Shark attacks on Long Island “are extremely rare,” county officials said, but they have increased in frequency of late.

The past two years saw more shark sightings than the entire previous decade combined.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/03/long-island-beach-temporarily-closes-after-shark-related-incident/

Bwahahahahaha training to be fish food ...