Shark bite at Assateague: Surfer recounts ‘terrifying’ moment but says he’ll be back in the water

Maryland officials are reassuring beachgoers and urging them to remain cautious after a man said he was bitten by a shark while surfing at Assateague State Park on Sunday.

While several shark species are found off Maryland’s Atlantic coast, people heading to Ocean City or Assateague State Park for Memorial Day celebrations should know that shark attacks are “very rare,” said Gregg Bortz, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The agency has recorded two confirmed bites in recent years. One person was bitten while clamming in Chincoteague Bay in 2014. Another person was bitten off the beach in Ocean City in 2021 while boogie boarding, the agency said. Both incidents involved sandbar sharks — a species known to lurk around sandy flatlands that can be as long as 8 feet.

Chances are people who have been in the ocean have had a shark swimming in the same waters, said David Shiffman, a marine conservation biologist based in Washington, D.C.

“A shark bite is just astronomically unlikely,” he said. “That’s because we’re not on the menu. Sharks are just not interested in eating us.”

Brendan Oster, 36, the man who said he was bitten, said Assateague State Park is one of his favorite places.

Its long coastline draws surfers into its waves. It’s what brought Oster to the park this past weekend, as it had many times over the past 22 years.

Bitten by a shark, but able to escape

As the sun glimmered over the water, Oster paddled his surfboard away from the families and fishermen hanging out on the shore.

Oster had dipped his right hand into the water when, suddenly, he said he felt a set of teeth clamp onto it.

“I knew right away, and honestly it was absolutely terrifying,” he said. “I was yelling out there. I was basically screaming for help pretty much immediately.”

He said a shark bit his hand and pulled him into the water. “Sheer terror” flashed across his mind as he tried to get loose. When the shark released him, he fled.

In a panic, Oster said he paddled back to the shore, yelling and unsure if he was being trailed. When a wave broke behind him, he rode white water to safety.

Oster said he fell to his knees when he reached the shore, his hand bloodied and covered with lacerations. A doctor who happened to be on the beach and heard his screams came rushing over with two women.

Together, the bystanders made a tourniquet for Oster’s hand. A couple of other surfers then grabbed his board, helped him to his feet and walked him to his car, where they called for help. Oster eventually drove himself to a local emergency room.

A spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources said the agency could not independently confirm the bite but had no reason to question the individual’s account.

The experience marked a first for Oster. Although it was “terrifying,” he said it wouldn’t deter him from returning to Assateague.

“There’s a lot of worse things that can happen to you in your daily life. The chances that that happen again are just so ridiculously slim,” he said. “I might have some butterflies when I go back out there the first few times, but I am definitely going back as soon as I possibly can.”

How to stay safe in the water this summer

Swimmers are advised to remain aware of their surroundings and the inhabitants of water they enter. The Department of Natural Resources offers the following safety tips:

• Avoid swimming in areas with drop-offs
• Avoid swimming alone and near people who are fishing
• Do not wear shiny items in the water
• Refrain from swimming at dawn and dusk

Staying close to the shore and in shallow water is also a good way to stay safe.

“This is the exact opposite of what most people who go surfing do, which is why, though still astronomically unlikely, more people who are surfing are bitten than just random people who go in the ocean,” Shiffman said.

He added: “They go far from shore, they’re usually by themselves, and a surfboard and a neoprene wetsuit from below looks an awful lot like a seal, which is on the menu for some of these shark species.”