Maine Lifeguard Has Terrifying Beach Encounter
A routine day on the job turned into a scene straight out of the movie Jaws for a veteran Maine lifeguard when a great white shark grabbed his rescue buoy and dragged him several feet underwater.
Greg Wilfert, 71, has spent roughly 55 years working as a lifeguard at Scarborough Beach State Park in Maine. But even after more than five decades of watching over swimmers, he had never experienced anything quite like what happened Saturday afternoon.
Wilfert was swimming with other lifeguards near the buoys, about 50 yards from shore, when something suddenly grabbed the rescue torpedo attached to him. The force was so powerful that Wilfert was pulled approximately five to six feet beneath the surface.
At first, Wilfert thought he had somehow been caught in the propeller of a boat. Then he realized there was no boat.
“I thought I got caught in a boat propeller,” Wilfert told CBS News Boston. “And I realized when I was going under there was no boat. And I knew what it was, I knew it was a great white.”
Wilfert reacted quickly. He freed himself from the strap connecting him to the rescue device and immediately swam toward the surface before making a beeline for shore.
The encounter was powerful enough that a witness reportedly saw the rescue torpedo shoot roughly six to eight feet into the air after Wilfert escaped. Thankfully, the veteran lifeguard was not injured.
“It was frightening,” Wilfert later admitted. “I am not going to deny that.”
And frankly, nobody would expect him to. Getting unexpectedly yanked underwater by a great white is generally not included in the standard lifeguard job description, although apparently Maine has decided to add some excitement to the position.
A Growing Number of Great White Sightings
The encounter was particularly concerning because it came during a period of increased great white shark activity along the Maine coast.
Officials said more than half a dozen white sharks had been spotted near popular beaches in the Scarborough area over a 48-hour period. On Friday alone, six white sharks were reportedly observed off Scarborough Beach, with another small great white spotted in the area that afternoon.
The incident was reviewed and identified as white shark activity by John Chisholm, a shark expert with the New England Aquarium. Following the encounter, Scarborough Beach State Park temporarily closed the water to swimmers for approximately an hour while officials investigated.
Authorities are urging beachgoers to pay close attention to warnings and lifeguard instructions, avoid swimming alone and be especially cautious around areas where fish, seals or feeding birds are present. Those are all places where sharks may also be looking for their next meal.
55 Years of Lifeguarding and One Hell of a Close Call
What makes Wilfert’s story particularly remarkable is his experience. He has spent more than half a century protecting swimmers at Scarborough Beach, beginning his lifeguarding career as a teenager. After all those years, it took a great white shark to give him one of the most frightening moments of his career.
The shark did not bite Wilfert himself. Instead, it grabbed the rescue device he was wearing and used it to pull him underwater. Still, being attached to a rescue buoy while a great white decides to take it for a submarine ride is close enough to a shark attack for most people’s comfort.
Wilfert managed to keep his head, release himself from the strap and get back to shore safely. The beach may have temporarily closed, but Wilfert’s story serves as another reminder that even experienced professionals cannot completely predict what is happening beneath the surface.
The ocean, unfortunately, does not care how many years you’ve been doing your job.
And somewhere beneath the water off Maine, there is apparently a great white that briefly decided a lifeguard’s rescue buoy looked like an interesting chew toy.
