By: Sunnie Gao

As shark sightings appear to be more common this Summer, police and lifeguards are stepping up their game, adding more shark patrols, security measures, and .

Lifeguards who have previously worked at Long Beach Island have only been expected to keep an eye out for the occasional dorsal fin and judge the validity of reports from jittery beachgoers that claim that they have seen the second “Jaws”.

Last summer, there were daily instances of shark sightings feeding on fish bait alarmingly close to swimmers and beachgoers. These sightings caused temporary closures of some swimming areas.

Numerous departments across Long Island have begun to adopt new security measures, such as shark monitoring technologies and increased patrols. Officials scour the waters using boats, helicopters, drones, jet skies, and paddle boats.

At Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park, nearly 20 lifeguards, police, and beach staff members have been trained to operate a fleet of seven drones as part of a new aerial shark-monitoring program.

“It’s like a new world we’re living in,” says Cary Epstein, a veteran lifeguard at Jones Beach. “In my 25 years as a lifeguard, we never had to do this.”

The Town of Hempstead has also hired additional lifeguards to scout for shark sightings, as well as mobilizing a shark patrol group on Jet Skis and a drone squad. In addition to water rescue techniques and C.P.R. The town’s ocean guards have also been trained to differentiate between shark species in order to identify ones that are a potential threat to swimmers.

This sudden hype over shark sightings frustrates marine experts that say that sharks pose no real threat to swimmers and beachgoers.

Hans Walters, a field scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium, said the latest interest inshark sightings near the beaches was “very overblown.” The threat to people from sharks is practically nonexistent, he said, and there is no real evidence that local shark populations have increased in recent years.

He says that the reason for the increased shark sightings is thatpeople are paying more attention and capturing more footage to post on social media.

Another reason is thatthere is a growing presence of hammerheads and bull sharks locally, which have previously avoided the colder local waters, according to Mr. Stefanou, who said he had caught nearly 1,000 sharks — up to 14 feet long — while surf-casting from local beaches over the past nine years.

“There are more and more sharks in the water, which sounds scary,” he said. “But it’s actually a good thing because it reflects a healthy ecosystem.”

People are more likely to be killed in a car crash on the way to the beach — or even while making toast — than by a shark, Mr. Paparo, a naturalist who manages a marine lab at Stony Brook University noted.

Even if a shark scare is thrilling, beachgoers don’t have to fear being eaten alive by megalodon or any shark at that… for now.