First shark attack in New York in over 60 years puzzles authorities

In all of Tatyana Koltunyuk's 65 years of life, New York City had not had a severe unprovoked shark attack, until it happened to her.

According to parks department spokeswoman, Meghan Lalor, Koltunyuk was swimming at Rockaway Beach on August 7 when a shark bit her on the left leg.

The police report, according to The New York Times, said the woman was swimming alone when the shark attacked her, after which she screamed for help.

Lifeguards rescued the woman from the water, applied a tourniquet, and called emergency services since her wound appeared severe.

According to the newspaper, emergency responders took the woman to Jamaica Hospital, near the scene, in critical condition.

The park's department spokeswoman detailed that Koltunyuk was in critical but stable condition at the hospital.

"We hope for a full recovery," Lalor said in a statement collected by The New York Times. She also highlighted that the attack was an abnormality.

Still, local authorities instituted precautionary measures on the beach where the attack happened. Lifeguards instructed all swimmers to leave the water.

A helicopter crew then searched the water for sharks, but they could not find it.

Still, the beach was closed to all water activity, including surfing or swimming, the day after the shark attack.

Gavin Naylor, the program director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, told the Associated Press that Koltunyuk's wounds could be consistent with a juvenile white shark.

The severity of the attack surprised experts because, aside from being scarce, these incidents are less severe in New York.

The Associated Press explained that the incident is rare because attacks in New York usually involve smaller sharks.

Christopher Paparo, the manager of the Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook University, agreed and told the news agency the wound was "unlike anything" they had seen.

Another characteristic that makes the attack rare is that it was unprovoked. According to the New York Times, the last incident in the city, in 1958, a man was bitten by a harpooned shark after provoking it.

The newspaper detailed, using numbers from a Florida database of all documented incidents, that there have only been 20 unprovoked shark attacks in New York State waters since 1837.

Local authorities have told swimmers that it is safe to return to the beach, and hopefully, swimmers return with caution since they're wading into an ocean that could have a shark lingering nearby.