An encounter with a great white shark over the weekend and the media feeding frenzy that followed left longtime lifeguard Greg Wilfert pondering some questions late Monday.
“‘What did you feel like when you got back to shore?’” Wilfert asked himself during an interview. “I felt like I had a job to do.”
The veteran lifeguard and director of Scarborough Beach State Park managed to escape after a shark dragged him underwater by the rescue torpedo that he had strapped to himself Saturday afternoon.
Police said in a news release Monday that the lifeguard was swimming with a rescue torpedo — a flotation device used in water rescues — when the shark grabbed it, pulling him 5 to 6 feet below the surface.
“At first, I thought I got caught in a boat propeller,” Wilfert said. “Once I was under the water, I knew it wasn’t a boat propeller.”
The rescue torpedo was attached to him by a strap.
“I slipped out of it and got back to the surface, and I just started swimming as fast as I could to shore,” Wilfert said. “I kept going and going, just hoping nothing was behind me.”
A bystander reported that the rescue torpedo, sometimes referred to as a rescue can, flew several feet out of the water soon after the lifeguard escaped, police said.
“People on the beach said they saw this rescue can come flying up from under the water and going up in the air about 4 to 5 feet,” Wilfert said.
Wilfert said he feels fortunate it didn’t end another way. But once he was in shallow enough water to stand Saturday, it was back to business.
“Did I sleep that night? You’re damn right I did,” he said.
Shark aware
Wilfert’s encounter “wasn’t the start” of sharks being top of mind at Scarborough Beach. The episode followed numerous reported sightings near Maine beach towns last week, including two spotted Aug. 4 at Pine Point Beach and five to seven more spotted a day later. Reid State Park in Georgetown was also temporarily closed to swimming Friday due to a sighting.
Following the sightings, Scarborough lifeguards went into “shark protocol” on Thursday, Wilfert said, and began scanning the water using a drone. They didn’t spot any.
On Friday, “because everyone in the public was worried,” they put a Jet Ski in the water and had vehicles patrol the beach, giving them a more visible presence.
When Wilfert got close enough to shore after his encounter, he said he began yelling at everyone to get out of the water. Scarborough Beach State Park was closed to swimming for an hour while officials assessed the situation.
“Will I swim the buoys this year?” Wilfert said. “No. I’ll swim, but I’ll be in chest-deep water.” If he or his lifeguards have to go deeper, they’ll have a drone watching over them.
More sightings
People have continued to spot sharks in the area, police said Monday. Wilfert said there have been over a dozen sightings at Scarborough Beach — and “they’re not all the same shark.”
Town officials urged beachgoers to use caution and said the sharks’ presence is “an ongoing concern.”
Wilfert said his lifeguards are directing swimmers to stay within a safe distance from shore, but he doesn’t expect to have to shut down the beach.
“I have enough lifeguards on duty to keep this safe and allow people to still enjoy the water,” he said.
Karl Ramsdell, a Maine-based wildlife photographer, has been following the shark activity over the past week, posting a series of videos to social media. He said once he puts his drone up, he can fly it from shark to shark.
Ramsdell said he’s been droning the area of Pine Point for about eight years, but until this year, he had never captured videos of them.
“If you go in the ocean in Saco Bay, you’re surrounded by them basically,” he said. “It just blows my mind that, all these years, I’ve never droned a shark — and this year, they’re all over the place.”
People should get out of the water immediately when instructed by lifeguards and public safety personnel, report shark sightings, avoid swimming if there are seals or large schools of fish or if alone, and understand that shark activity can occur close to shore and in relatively shallow water.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News.
Staff Writer Andrew Rice contributed to this report. Salomé Cloteaux can be reached at scloteaux@metln.org. Drew Johnson can be reached at djohnson@pressherald.com.