Greg Wilfert was pulled five to six feet underwater off Scarborough Beach State Park in Maine on Saturday afternoon after a great white shark grabbed his rescue flotation device. Daryen Granata said the lifeguard was using a rescue torpedo during shark patrol when the encounter happened.
Granata said Wilfert freed himself from the strap attached to the device and swam back to shore safely. He was shaken up but not injured, and Scarborough Beach State Park closed to swimming for about an hour after the incident.
Scarborough Beach State Park
A bystander reported seeing the flotation device shortly after Wilfert started swimming to shore. Officials said the encounter and the surrounding shark activity were very consistent with other activity recorded by experts with the New England Aquarium.
Granata said there continues to be a significant number of great white sharks observed in the waters off the state park and Higgins Beach areas, with recent observations including multiple sharks moving through the nearshore waters and sandbar areas. That is the setting around the beach now: a brief closure after a direct encounter, then a reopening once the immediate risk passed.
Pine Point Beach in Maine
The same stretch of coast has also drawn attention during the week. On Tuesday, a great white shark swam close to a fisherman near Pine Point Beach in Maine, adding another reported sighting in the area before Saturday’s encounter.
For beachgoers, the immediate practical change is the return of swimming after the short closure. The larger issue is the repeated shark activity Granata described off Scarborough Beach State Park and Higgins Beach, which makes another alert more likely if the pattern continues.
