Shark sightings are on the rise — and beach towns are fighting back with high

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If you sea something, say something.

With millions beach-bound this Memorial Day weekend, New York-area coastal communities are working overtime to keep swimmers safe while enjoying the region's increasingly shark-infested waters.

With sightings — and panic — on the rise, towns are hoping to avoid any Amity Island-like scenarios by rolling out a range of high-tech tools designed to spot the bite-y beasts well before they get anywhere near the shoreline.

In New York, beach burgs are receiving state-level backing, as Albany recently announced new coordinated efforts with local beaches to fly both drones and helicopters over the waters this year, to monitor for the unwanted interlopers.

State troopers will be scouting areas such as Jones and Robert Moses beaches with a particularly high-tech drone that's equipped "with thermal imaging, laser range finding, and high-quality cameras to allow for night-time surveillance and patrols in adverse weather conditions," according to a NYS announcement.

"This drone can also drop personal flotation devices in emergency situations."

The news comes as seasonal sightings have already started coming like the tide — earlier this month, a nine-foot, 434-pound white shark was sighted narrowly off the shore of Smith Point on Fire Island — the same beach where a man went viral last summer for wrestling with a beast of the sea while on sand.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old girl was attacked while surfing off the shore of Stone Harbor, New Jersey, just days ago. She suffered lacerations to her foot and calf, which required stitches.

"Drones are an important part of our surveillance of the beaches," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told The Post. "We will have drones in the air, helicopters in the air, we will have boats out in the water and all-terrain vehicles [looking] from the beaches."

"There's a certain grid they follow so that they cover as much territory as possible," Blakeman said. "It's a well-thought-out plan. We’re very meticulous."

In Nassau's Town of Oyster Bay — where drones are being utilized for the first time this season on the south shore — lifeguards and bay constables will also undergo special training to better identify sharks before the animals get too close for comfort.

"There's a big [emphasis] put onto identifying the shapes and the movements of predatory marine animals," Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino told The Post.

For the first time, Saladino said, informational safety flyers will be passed out to visitors at Tobay Beach, the town's popular stretch of sand facing the Great South Bay and Atlantic Ocean.

"We also have utilized a jet ski for patrols and better communication technology on the boats with the lifeguards," he said.

Beachgoers aren't the only ones in for a potential shark sighting this summer. Close calls are now commonplace for fishermen plying the waters near New York City, Tom LaCognata of Rockaway Fishing Charters told The Post.

"We realized we were seeing more sharks closer to shore since around 2019," LaCognata said. "We had a great white last year about three miles offshore — we’re getting sharks from down south now too, spinner sharks and bull sharks. We had not seen those in the past," LaCognata said, adding that he's observed animals like whales and dolphins making their way closer to shore as well.

The captain attributes the change to warmer currents and cleaner waters that lure in prey fish that sharks love to eat.

Still, experts note that the increase in sightings doesn't necessarily translate to an increase in their numbers.

"It's very unlikely that there's more sharks, based off their reproduction rates," Long Island Aquarium assistant curator Teddy Tilkin told The Post.

Instead, he said, the reason we’re seeing more of them is due to the increase in high-tech monitoring tools — along with the step-up in patrols.

"You have better drones, you have better cameras, better visibility. Once you start really looking, you’re going to end up finding more," Tilkin said, noting saying that 20 different shark species live off New York's coastline.

"There's definitely sharks that people swam with for plenty of years. They never really knew because we didn't have the drones to spot a few miles out."

Meanwhile, officials said that a shark attack shouldn't be your biggest concern at the beach this summer.

"It is more likely that someone will drown from the current riptide than from being bitten by a shark," Blakeman said, noting that the county is rolling out new awareness initiatives designed to get New Yorkers swimming smarter.

And, typically, sharks swimming close by won't even approach people, Tilkin noted.

"Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, they’re not going to bother you — and when they do it's usually mistaken identity," he said.

"They’re curious about something and they don't have hands. So they usually take a little bite."