You may be wondering if there are sharks in Long Island and in Long Island Sound.
There are sharks in Long Island and Long Island Sound, which include sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, spiny dogfish, smooth dogfish, great white sharks, bull sharks and spinner sharks.
Article warning about sharks in Long Island: If you’re not a keen fan of fishing, and especially fishing for sharks in Long Island, you may not like some of the videos I include in this article. But what the videos included show is the list of sharks in Long Island or Long Island Sound are found there.
If you would love to dive with great white sharks, one of the best ways to do this is to book yourself on a scuba diving liveaboard that visits Guadalupe Island in Mexico. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
Sharks found in Long Island and Long Island Sound include:
Sand tiger shark.
Sandbar shark (Brown).
Spiny dogfish.
Smooth dogfish.
Great white sharks.
Bull Sharks.
Spinner sharks.
Sand tiger shark Long Island
The sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus), which is also known as a ragged-tooth shark due to its mouth gape and tooth alignment (see video), some call them sand tigers too.
These teeth often make sand tiger sharks look unduly aggressive, but they are actually not an aggressive shark at all (unless provoked of course). The sand tiger shark is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide, like Long Island.
The sand tiger shark is not to be confused with the tiger shark, they are two completely different shark species.
Here’s an example of a sand tiger shark in a diving video that can be found in waters off New York and along the shores of Long Island. If you want to compare this to a tiger shark and what one of these very large sharks looks like instead, please check this article: Do Tiger Sharks Attack Humans: Are They Aggressive?
Please note that the above video of sand tiger sharks was filmed by divers in North Carolina, rather than Long Island. But see the next video of sand tiger shark research, which shows that sand tiger sharks are in the waters off New York and Long Island.
Sand Tiger Shark Research & Tagging in NY Seascape | WCS WCS researchers who have collected a wealth of information on sharks in New York waters over the past four years through the use of acoustic tags, devices that enable scientists to remotely track marine animals as they swim through their environment. These data have helped the scientists confirm the existence of the nursery in Great South Bay, one of the rich estuaries found along Long Island’s southern shore. Only a handful of sand tiger shark nursery grounds have been identified, one of which is in the waters of Massachusetts.
Brown sandbar shark Long Island
The sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus), which is also known as the brown shark, is a species of requiem shark. Sandbar sharks are commonly found over muddy or sandy bottoms in shallow coastal waters such as Long Island. They are known to be bottom feeds and will eat bottom-dwelling fish, invertebrates and crabs.
GIANT Brown Shark caught from the Long Island Surf Big Brown Shark (Sandbar Shark) caught while surf fishing the South Shore of Long Island, New York.
Spiny dogfish Long Island
The spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), sometimes referred to as a spurdog or mud shark, as they are bottom feeding sharks. The smooth dogfish is just one of the dogfish family of sharks, which are small sharks and can grow to around 1.2 metres (4 feet).
Catching spiny dogfish off Long Island on Codfather Charters Catching spiny dogfish off Long Island on Codfather Charters out of Freeport, NY in May 2013.
Smooth dogfish Long Island
The smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) or dusky smooth hound is a species of houndshark. The smooth dogfish is just one of the dogfish family of sharks, which are small sharks and can grow to around 1.5 metres (60″).
Smooth Dogfish Shark Identification A short video highlighting how to identify a smooth dogfish shark – Mark Sampson – BigSharks.com
Great white sharks Long Island
The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), which is also commonly referred to as a great white, white shark, and sometimes a white pointer, is a species of large mackerel shark. The great white is the shark portrayed in the Movie Jaws by Stephen Speilberg.
Ocearch discovers great white shark birth site off NY coast History is being made this week in the waters off Long Island, New York, as Ocearch says it’s found the first-known birthing site for great white sharks on the north Atlantic coast. In less than a week, the team has fitted nine young sharks with locator tags, which will allow researchers to track their movements. Only on “CBS This Morning,” Jeff Glor takes a behind-the-scene look at their efforts.
If you would love to dive with great white sharks, one of the best ways to do this is to book yourself on a scuba diving liveaboard that visits Guadalupe Island in Mexico. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
Bull sharks Long Island Sound
Of the Long Island sharks, the one that surprised me the most was the bull shark. I didn’t expect that bull sharks would be in Long Island, but the follow video proved me wrong.
The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), which is also known as the “Zambezi shark” in Africa, is a large shark. Known to live and hunt in shallow waters, making them often dangerous to humans when swimming in shallow murky river waters. Bull sharks have the unique ability to be able to swim in both salt water (i.e. the sea) and in fresh water ( i.e. lakes and rivers).
300 plus pound bull shark caught at Gilgo beach, Long Island New York
Spinner sharks Long Island
Spinner sharks (Carcharhinus brevipinna) are requiem sharks and get their name for the spinning leaps whilst feeding in the surf. The following video shows a spinner shark being caught on South Shore, Long Island.
SHARK FISHING South Shore of LONG ISLAND for Spinner Sharks!!!
I hope you enjoyed this article about are there sharks in Long Island & Long Island Sound
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about are there sharks in Long Island & Long Island Sound), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.
Are There Sharks In Long Island & Long Island Sound?
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
