SCARBOROUGH, Maine — A Maine lifeguard with more than five decades of experience said he had a frightening encounter with a great white shark at the beach over the weekend.
Greg Wilfert, the park manager of Scarborough Beach State Park in Maine, said he was operating a rescue torpedo in the waters offshore on Saturday when a shark grabbed the device, WFXT reported.
Wilfert estimated that he was dragged about 5 feet beneath the surface while the rescue torpedo squirted about 6 to 8 feet out of the water, according to the television station.
“I got pulled underwater. I was probably 5 feet under, and I thought I was caught in a boat prop,” Wilfert told WFXT. “I realized it wasn’t. There’s no fish that’s going to do that. It had to be a big fish.
“It had to be the shark. It was a shark.”
Wilfert said he was able to swim safely to shore, WMTW reported.
“I was hoping that it wasn’t coming back up to check me out,” he told the television station.
According to the Scarborough Police Department, the park was closed for approximately an hour after the shark encounter, WFXT reported.
In a news release, the Scarborough Police Department noted that the shark activity was “very consistent with other activity we have seen,” and the department’s observations were reviewed and corroborated by shark expert John Chisholm of the New England Aquarium.
The park now has lifeguards closer to the shore and has employed jet skis and a drone to monitor activity, according to WMTW. Beachgoers have been told they can only go waist-deep into the ocean.
“We’re not taking any chances,” Wilfert, who is in his 55th year as a lifeguard at Scarborough Beach State Park, told the television station.
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