A shark dragged a lifeguard underwater after grabbing his rescue buoy at Scarborough Beach over the weekend.
Greg Wilfert, 71, was swimming around buoys with other lifeguards on Saturday, said he thought he’d been pulled by a boat, or caught up in a propeller, as he was taken around five feet under water. “That’s the only thing I could think of until I realized there was no boat,” he told CBS News.
Greg managed to remove his strap and swim back to shore, but said the encounter was frightening.
“I just swam as fast as I could to the surface, and then I just was hoping it wasn’t behind me. I could’ve beaten Michael Phelps.”
He then warned beachgoers about the encounter as another lifeguard took over – before shutting the beach down for an hour.
Jet skis and drones have since been deployed to monitor the situation. “I’m taking it seriously. I won’t be swimming the buoys for a while,” he told Fox News.
Maine lifeguard dragged underwater by great white shark during routine patrol pic.twitter.com/KKMAwPhuuD
— What’s the Word? (@wtwmass) August 11, 2026
Shark migratory patterns are shifting across the globe, as the population moves into warming waters and chase prey closer to shore. Even last week, at least a dozen sharks have been spotted close to where Greg had his encounter.
Daryen Granata, Scarborough’s marine resources officer said: “Usually we’ll see one or two here and there. This is a large volume, larger than I’ve seen, and I’ve worked this area for 30-plus years.”
There has been a surge in shark sightings across the southern and midcoast of Maine this month, sparking beach closures and heightened public safety notices.
Meanwhile, great white patterns in Southern California and off the coast of Australia have also shifted, given the need to find warmer waters. Shark encounters in the south of Australia have seen an uptick while the migratory pattern of shark nurseries is starting drift northwards across California.
California is now set to see one of its sharkiest summers in a decade, with large numbers of juvenile great whites moving progressively north.
Related: Why Great White Sharks Are Suddenly Haunting Safe Coastlines
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