{"id":39658,"date":"2026-08-12T00:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=39658"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:42:33","slug":"maine-lifeguard-started-swimming-like-hell-when-shark-pulled-him-underwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=39658","title":{"rendered":"Maine lifeguard &#8220;started swimming like hell&#8221; when shark pulled him underwater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\" data-body-type=\"bodyblocks\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A <a data-ylk=\"slk:lifeguard in Maine;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/boston\/news\/scarborough-beach-maine-lifeguard-shark-dragged\/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">lifeguard in Maine<\/a> said he &#8220;started swimming like hell&#8221; when a shark grabbed onto his buoy and pulled him underwater off the coast of Scarborough Beach on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Greg Wilfert said he initially thought he was caught in the propeller of a boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;&#8216;Cause that&#8217;s the only thing I could think of until I realized there was no boat,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wilfert said he was pulled about 5 feet underwater before he was able to get free and emerge on shore unharmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It was frightening,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to deny that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">More shark sightings<\/h2>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials along the East Coast say there are more sharks closer to shore in areas where they don&#8217;t usually go.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Since last week, at least a dozen sharks have been spotted close to popular beaches in the area of Wilfert&#8217;s encounter, according to Scarborough&#8217;s marine resources officer Daryen Granata.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Usually we&#8217;ll see one or two here and there. This is a large volume, larger than I&#8217;ve seen, and I&#8217;ve worked this area for 30-plus years,&#8221; Granata said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The trend is happening as conservation efforts have led to an increase in marine life populations in recent years, experts say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna see more of everything, including more sharks,&#8221; OCEARCH founder Chris Fischer explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His nonprofit studies sharks by catching, tagging and collecting data before releasing them back into the ocean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It means just try to be a little bit more aware of what&#8217;s going on in the environment around you. You see a lot of life, steer clear of that,&#8221; he warned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Still, shark encounters remain rare. Last year, the International Shark Attack File reported 25 unprovoked bites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lifeguard in Maine said he &#8220;started swimming like hell&#8221; when a shark grabbed onto his buoy and pulled him underwater off the coast of Scarborough Beach on Saturday. Greg Wilfert said he initially thought he was caught in the propeller of a boat. &#8220;&#8216;Cause that&#8217;s the only thing I could think of until I&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/cd18a817f42cb8144368ce818de73fcb3cd6ea56f52af53488b85a7bb6e19036\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w1200%3Bquality_80%3Bformat_jpg\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fcbs_news_897%2F7a93dd46809654c2fd947e066660b822.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}