As drones spot sharks, New York beaches are shut down
'We've always surfed in harmony with them,' said Kate Leddington, a longtime surfer who recently moved to Charlottesville, Va., after years in Brooklyn and was on the beach at Rockaway on Saturday. 'There's sharks out there always — it's just now they're using drones to see them.'
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On Wednesday, in preparation for the holiday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that state agencies now have 28 camera-equipped drones to search for sharks, as well as 48 trained drone operators. State and city protocol dictates that when a shark sighting is confirmed, swimming cannot resume until at least one hour later. Beachgoers can remain on the sand during that time.
The city, which oversees Rockaway Beach, has a fleet of its own operated by the police and fire departments and the emergency management office. Once an alien sight at the beach, the devices have become nearly as commonplace as Jet Skis.
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On Tuesday afternoon, a shark was spotted at Beach 100th Street in Rockaway Beach, according to the Parks Department. Following protocol, officials paused swimming for 1 mile around the sighting area. Twenty minutes after that ban was lifted, another shark was spotted nearby, and swimming was stopped again until 4 p.m., officials said.
On Friday morning, two more sharks were spotted on drone footage just off the shore of Beach 32nd Street on the eastern side of the Rockaways, the Parks Department said. This time, officials closed the entirety of Rockaway Beach until 12:30 p.m. By 12:15 p.m., the sharks were still roaming the area, prompting officials to keep the beach closed until 2:30 p.m.
A few hours later, a shark was spotted miles away at Beach 113th Street, causing another closure, they said.
In a post on the social platform X on Friday, Kaz Daughtry, New York City's deputy mayor for public safety, thanked the city's emergency management department, lifeguards, and operators for keeping New Yorkers safe. 'These sightings were very close to beachgoers,' he wrote in a caption accompanying a video of sharks slithering through shimmering teal water.
On Saturday morning, another shark sighting closed yet another stretch of Queens beach. This time, 1 mile of coastline from Beach 86th to Beach 106th Streets was off-limits to swimmers until around 12:30 p.m. after a shark was reported off Beach 91st Street, the Parks Department said. The sightings continued into the evening, when drones spotted another shark about 100 feet from swimmers, prompting officials to close the beach just as lifeguards were wrapping up their shifts, Daughtry wrote on X.
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Then on Sunday, the drones spotted a shark at Beach 102nd Street around 2:30 p.m., leading to an hourlong closure of a more than 30-block stretch of the beach, officials said.
This weekend's sightings come one week after a 20-year-old woman was probably bitten by a shark at Jones Beach on Long Island in the first attack of the season at a New York state beach. There have been several other high-profile shark encounters on Long Island over the past few years, though experts maintain that the chance of a violent encounter with a shark remains low.
Janet Fash, a longtime chief lifeguard at Rockaway Beach, said she thought that shark appearances in the Rockaways had grown more frequent in the past few years. She attributed the surge to a number of factors, including a newly built rock jetty that has created a cove of sorts near a section of beach where people fish.
'Maybe it's the bunker fish, maybe it's that cove getting deeper and they're coming in,' Fash said.
On Saturday, hours after the morning's shark sighting, swimmers and surfers standing under brilliant summer sunshine on Rockaway Beach said they were mostly unfazed by the recent close encounters.
Maxence Lachard, 30, said he had been surfing near Beach 86th Street that morning when parks security officers told him to get out of the water. Calmly, he made his way to shore, and when the coast was clear, he went back out.
'No risk, no fun,' Lachard said.
Later that afternoon, with beachgoers on high alert for sharks, something emerged from the shallow surf with a blue fin on its back.
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This 'shark' was Baloo, a Yorkie poodle, dressed up as if for doggy Halloween by its owners, Doby Espinoza and Oscar Europa.
Espinoza, 31, reassured people that his bark was worse than his bite. Baloo is 13, and all his teeth have fallen out.
'People are safe!' she said. 'It's a toothless shark.'
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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
As drones spot sharks, New York beaches are shut down
Advertisement 'We've always surfed in harmony with them,' said Kate Leddington, a longtime surfer who recently moved to Charlottesville, Va., after years in Brooklyn and was on the beach at Rockaway on Saturday. 'There's sharks out there always — it's just now they're using drones to see them.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up On Wednesday, in preparation for the holiday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that state agencies now have 28 camera-equipped drones to search for sharks, as well as 48 trained drone operators. State and city protocol dictates that when a shark sighting is confirmed, swimming cannot resume until at least one hour later. Beachgoers can remain on the sand during that time. The city, which oversees Rockaway Beach, has a fleet of its own operated by the police and fire departments and the emergency management office. Once an alien sight at the beach, the devices have become nearly as commonplace as Jet Skis. Advertisement On Tuesday afternoon, a shark was spotted at Beach 100th Street in Rockaway Beach, according to the Parks Department. Following protocol, officials paused swimming for 1 mile around the sighting area. Twenty minutes after that ban was lifted, another shark was spotted nearby, and swimming was stopped again until 4 p.m., officials said. On Friday morning, two more sharks were spotted on drone footage just off the shore of Beach 32nd Street on the eastern side of the Rockaways, the Parks Department said. This time, officials closed the entirety of Rockaway Beach until 12:30 p.m. By 12:15 p.m., the sharks were still roaming the area, prompting officials to keep the beach closed until 2:30 p.m. A few hours later, a shark was spotted miles away at Beach 113th Street, causing another closure, they said. In a post on the social platform X on Friday, Kaz Daughtry, New York City's deputy mayor for public safety, thanked the city's emergency management department, lifeguards, and operators for keeping New Yorkers safe. 'These sightings were very close to beachgoers,' he wrote in a caption accompanying a video of sharks slithering through shimmering teal water. On Saturday morning, another shark sighting closed yet another stretch of Queens beach. This time, 1 mile of coastline from Beach 86th to Beach 106th Streets was off-limits to swimmers until around 12:30 p.m. after a shark was reported off Beach 91st Street, the Parks Department said. The sightings continued into the evening, when drones spotted another shark about 100 feet from swimmers, prompting officials to close the beach just as lifeguards were wrapping up their shifts, Daughtry wrote on X. Advertisement Then on Sunday, the drones spotted a shark at Beach 102nd Street around 2:30 p.m., leading to an hourlong closure of a more than 30-block stretch of the beach, officials said. This weekend's sightings come one week after a 20-year-old woman was probably bitten by a shark at Jones Beach on Long Island in the first attack of the season at a New York state beach. There have been several other high-profile shark encounters on Long Island over the past few years, though experts maintain that the chance of a violent encounter with a shark remains low. Janet Fash, a longtime chief lifeguard at Rockaway Beach, said she thought that shark appearances in the Rockaways had grown more frequent in the past few years. She attributed the surge to a number of factors, including a newly built rock jetty that has created a cove of sorts near a section of beach where people fish. 'Maybe it's the bunker fish, maybe it's that cove getting deeper and they're coming in,' Fash said. On Saturday, hours after the morning's shark sighting, swimmers and surfers standing under brilliant summer sunshine on Rockaway Beach said they were mostly unfazed by the recent close encounters. Maxence Lachard, 30, said he had been surfing near Beach 86th Street that morning when parks security officers told him to get out of the water. Calmly, he made his way to shore, and when the coast was clear, he went back out. 'No risk, no fun,' Lachard said. Later that afternoon, with beachgoers on high alert for sharks, something emerged from the shallow surf with a blue fin on its back. Advertisement This 'shark' was Baloo, a Yorkie poodle, dressed up as if for doggy Halloween by its owners, Doby Espinoza and Oscar Europa. Espinoza, 31, reassured people that his bark was worse than his bite. Baloo is 13, and all his teeth have fallen out. 'People are safe!' she said. 'It's a toothless shark.' This article originally appeared in
New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
Five ‘futuristic' new toilets debut at NYC parks, costing city $1M a pop: ‘A little steep'
They're flushing millions down the toilets. The city dumped a whopping $5 million to install five new stainless steel toilets at public parks — even though the futuristic pods sell at a relatively cheap retail value of about $185,000. The 'Portland Loos' cost $1 million each with 'additional site specific costs' that included related plumbing, electrical and pavement work that went along with the installation, officials said — but some Big Apple residents said the price tag is totally loo-dicrous. 'That frustrates me,' said Bushwick resident Tiv Adler, 29, at Irving Square Park in Brooklyn on Thursday. 'I wish we could reallocate that money to more resources for the public.' Advertisement But others said when you gotta go, you gotta have somewhere to go — even though the pod at Hoyt Playground was locked Thursday afternoon. 'At this point, I feel like we should actually be able to use it,' said Valeria Martinez, 23, who called the initiative a 'waste of money.' 'I think it'll probably take around a month or two for it to be gross, and be locked again probably,' she added. The new toilets are part of a long-awaited $6 million pilot program, according to City Hall. Other sports where the facilities have been installed are Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx, Thomas Jefferson Park in Manhattan and Father Macris Park in Staten Island. Advertisement 7 Five new 'futuristic' stainless steel public toilets were unveiled at parks across the city Tuesday, each costing taxpayers about $1 million per John, city officials said. NYC Parks 'Let's be honest, when nature calls, New Yorkers shouldn't have to cut their fun short,' Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. 7 The jail cell-like pods, dubbed 'Portland Loos,' were doled out to five neighborhoods identified as having insufficient public bathroom access as part of a long-awaited $6 million pilot program. Stephen Yang Advertisement 'We're proud to be rolling out our new, sleek bathrooms across all five boroughs, which will ensure New Yorkers across our city can soak up more of the sun this summer with friends and loved ones without having to worry about where to go when they have to go.' 7 Bushwick resident Tiv Adler called the million-dollar price tag 'surprising.' Stephen Yang The new locations were chosen in neighborhoods that needed some relief with more options for restrooms and many saw the cost as worth it. 'I think public restrooms are a huge issue,' said Williamsburg resident Mike Graffiti, 27. 'Does a million sound a little steep? Yeah … there's a lot of other factors that come into it, where it's just expensive to do things in New York City because that's how it is.' Advertisement 7 The new Portland Loo in Irving Square Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Stephen Yang But even the most optimistic New Yorkers were concerned about the cleanliness of the Portland Loos, first used in 2008 by the city in Oregon. 7 Astoria resident Valeria Martinez, 23, pointed out that the kiosk at Hoyt Playground was locked Thursday afternoon — rendering the stall a 'waste of money.' Stephen Yang 'Will it stay clean? We don't know,' said Bushwick local Elise Verstraete, 39. 'If they lock it at night, it may be, and as long as they maintain it. 'No one [bathroom] is ever that clean,' Verstraete added. 'Plus, with the amount of homeless people that trickle in here in the evening, I believe they close [the park] down at night so that might be a good preventative measure, but I don't think that's going to stop it.' The 'deluxe' pods include a baby changing station, anti-graffiti walls, angled louvers for officials to monitor criminal activity. 7 'Will it stay clean? We don't know,' said Bushwick local Elise Verstraete, 39. Stephen Yang The facilities can also be connected to full utilities for year-round use, are ADA-accessible and are designed to last decades, if maintained properly. Advertisement 7 The Portland Loos, first used in 2008 by the city in Oregon, cost about $1 million per site plus 'additional site-specific costs,' City Hall said. Stephen Yang The new potties are part of Adams' June 2024 'Ur In Luck' initiative, which aims to expand public bathroom access citywide with nearly 50 new public bathrooms slated to be built and an additional 36 existing facilities set to be renovated through 2029. The news comes as a bill passed by City Council earlier this year directed officials to come up with a plan to add at least 2,120 public bathrooms to the city by the year 2035 — half of which would be publicly owned. The Big Apple only has about 1,100 public toilets for its 8.6 million residents, bill sponsor council member Sandy Nurse said at the time — or about one toilet per 7,800 residents.
Time Magazine
01-07-2025
- Time Magazine
How I Learned to Love My Body—Especially in the Summer
There is a day we New Yorkers quietly celebrate, that we don't have a name the morning when I can feel the earth peel back her blanket and stretch out for the first time in months. For once, she doesn't have to reach for a sweater to throw over her nightgown; she might even step outside to greet the day.I do the same, stepping outside to bask in the symphony of new sounds: the silly flap of sandals against the pavement, the no‑nonsense buzz of a bee hard at work, the crunch of a bunny snacking on wildflowers. No, that's me getting carried away; there are no bunnies in my industrial part of it is the first kiss of summer. If you live in bear country and not Brooklyn, the warm months are signaled not with sundress debuts and iced coffee orders, but with the grumbles and growls of furry beasts who have emerged from isn't sleep. It's a mastery of evolution, a collection of advanced adaptations and seemingly miraculous physiological strategies that allow so many critters to burrow underground for months without food or water and still look like their fuzzy, glorious selves as they totter out of their dens. After a hearty shake, the animals are rested and ready for action, with healthy, shiny fur coats at however wondrous and exotic the ritual seems, hibernation is a challenging concept when you really get to thinking about it: What if humans were just as in tune with our bodies? Would it work out for us? What if we followed our bodily cues as attentively as bears and other animals do?It took me a long time to learn I am a body. In a society that splits the mind as separate from the body, I question my own desires and needs as they arise. I even distrust them, commanding them to keep quiet so I can function normally in this culture that has so many ways to hide bodily requirements. In most of contemporary society, we are practically forced to disembody if we want to have any chance at fitting in, keeping a job, getting accepted, even being seen as fully human. It is so outrageous (yet somehow normal) that grocery stores sell 'hunger-reducing' gum and Ozempic is easily accessible so that our bodies can't tell us when to eat, and absurd that we follow a labor schedule that was created for machines, and so upsetting that things like periods and panic attacks are seen as pesky hindrances to be hidden and worked through rather than honored with rest and More: How To Use Your Body To Make Yourself Happier Something I love about animals is that you never have to tell an animal 'Be yourself.' They know no other way to be. Animals go to the bathroom, reject unwanted affection, gobble food, sleep for hours, and bite their toenails without a moment of hesitation or a shameful glance around to see if anyone's looking. The messages between their fuzzy bodies and their brains don't go through any filtering system. Thought and action are practically one and the same: Hungry! Eat; Tired! Rest; Curious! have mastered embodiment, the experience of being a body rather than having a body. They don't separate their physical self as an unruly object to control, argue with, be proud of, or for a long time, we humans were the same way. That is, until Plato came along and decided that body and mind were two different entities. His coping mechanism to escape the grind of Ancient Greece was to call the mind the 'true self,' whereas a body was just a sloppy vessel to carry it around. While bodies were used and hurt by others, and, let's face it, were kind of embarrassing, the mind was pure and could attain an interesting idea, but it's gotten us into all kinds of trouble throughout history. Disembodiment, which denies any inherent preciousness of the body, has been used in service to humanity's most egregious sins, from slavery to eugenics. If you can separate a body from a person, you're more likely to accept the use of that body as an object. It now means that we endure the legacy of disembodiment as an accepted concept. Take swimsuit season. As far as we've come from the SlimFast lunches and cabbage soup diet of the early 2000s, a lot of us still have diet culture leftovers lingering around in our minds when it comes to public displays of body appearance—especially their annual debuts in the summer. I used to feel nothing but dread when I'd realize while packing my beach bag that I'd forgotten to get those abs I meant to get over the winter, or that last night's dinner party with friends was showing up in some extra tummy bloat. I treated my rolls and squishy parts like they were evidence of my failures—a visible symbol that I lacked the saintly discipline that I've envied in other girls since middle school. But bodies are living things who are entitled to change, strengthen, soften, expand, and spill out as evidence of a life lived—not a life restricted. A dinner party with friends is one of my greatest pleasures, and I didn't get around to those abs in winter because I was too busy enjoying time for needed and delicious rest. If I'm a little flabbier for naturally responding to my joys and environment, so be it. Plunging into a swimming pool is another one of my greatest pleasures, and we all deserve to feel the unselfconscious glory of being a body in water on a hot day. I quit blaming myself for my body's naturalness when I learned to love life—not just my life, but the existence of any life on earth. The more I appreciated living things and their living-thing-ness, the more merciful I was toward myself. Subsequently, I learned to love signs of life: eye wrinkles, rolls of fat, chubby cheeks, jiggly arms, laugh lines, stretch marks, cellulite dimples, and colorful signs of vitality, age, changes, growth, and aliveness.I smile when I think about bears who never have to learn any of this. They eat when they're hungry, wander when they're restless, and sleep when they're tired. Somehow, after months in a comfy cave, they witness summer as the rest of us do: with energy and renewal. And it's because they never questioned what their bodies needed. When I catch myself questioning my needs, or scrutinizing my physical appearance, I remember what my soul experiences as a body: smelling the clothes of people I love, hearing cumbia music, applying blush, swimming in a cold lake, trying to stifle a laugh when it's not appropriate to laugh, carrying an ice cream cone, first time I realized all that was the first time I really felt at home here, in my body. I know what it's like to hate this home, and I know what it's like to love being in it. I know what it's like to feel my body as a brutalist office building made of concrete walls and right angles, restrictions and doors where I didn't know the entrance code. And I know what it's like to be in my body as a cozy cabin on a I splash around a pool, more attentive to my soul's elation than to the shape of my being in a bathing suit, I feel in touch with my human animal self, who experiences all the joys on earth through this natural, ever-changing body. From HOW TO BE A LIVING THING by Mari Andrew, published by Penguin Life, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Mari Andrew.
