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ISLIP, N.Y. – A tooth taken from the leg of a boy bitten at the Fire Island National Seashore in New York has been identified as a sand tiger shark, after a DNA comparison, researchers said Wednesday.
Researchers at the University of Florida have compared tooth DNA with a set of shark genetic data to determine its species. Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, said it was the first time a shark involved in a bite was identified using DNA.
The beaches were closed at Fire Island in mid-July, after the 13-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were bitten. Both children were treated and released from a hospital. The girl reported seeing an orange-brown fish 3 to 4 feet long with a dorsal fin.
Lindsay French, Program Manager for the Shark Research Center, arranged for the tooth to be sent to researchers for DNA analysis.
Naylor thinks the two bites were accidental in juvenile sharks after schools of fish.
"Maybe wrongly, I put them in the tray of naive young sharks," said Naylor. "I'm sure the bitten kids were petrified, but the sharks were probably too."
He said that sand tigers could reach 226 kilograms (500 pounds), but that they rarely bite humans. Naylor reported that about 70% of shark bites came from unidentified species, but it is often assumed that large whites, tiger sharks and bull sharks are responsible because of their size and the fact that they are involved. in most identifiable bites. He said that the use of DNA analysis could help identify other species responsible for anonymous bites.
Shark attacks in New York are rare, Naylor said, but when large schools of baitfish head for the shore, predators follow them and may accidentally bite people swimming in the water while they are in the water. they feed.
The latest sand tiger bites reported near New York occurred in 1988 and 1974, and the latest attacks of unidentified species occurred in 2015 and in 2017, according to a record of Shark attack at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
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