SCARBOROUGH, M.E. (WHDH) A 71-year-old lifeguard opened up about his harrowing encounter with a great white shark off the coast of Maine Saturday, detailing how the animal bit his rescue device and dragged him underwater.
Greg Wilfert is the Park Manager and a lifeguard at Scarborough Beach. Wilfert has worked at the beach for 55 years, but said his close call with the shark over the weekend was a first. He said he and a few other lifeguards went swimming around the buoys when he was suddenly yanked down.
“I thought a boat had come by and grabbed my rescue can because I got pulled under, and I realized right away that it was not a boat, that it had to have been a great white,” Wilfert said. “I just swam as fast as I could to the surface, and then I just was hoping it wasn’t behind me.”
Wilfert said he was pulled five-to-six feet underwater before he was able to free himself from the strap of his rescue device and swim back to shore.
“I could’ve beaten Michael Phelps,” he said.
Wilfert then warned beachgoers to get out of the water and shut the beach down for an hour to ensure the area was clear. He said he has since kept jet skis and drones monitoring the area, scaring off any other great whites from getting too close to shore.
“There was a lot of bait around, a lot of bait fish, a lot of stripers – there’s a lot of fish around,” said Daryen Granata, the Scarborough Harbormaster.
Officials said there have been several great white shark spottings recently.
“We knew there was a presence around, but we had put up a drone and we hadn’t seen them,” Wilfert said.
Since the incident, Scarborough Beach has increased patrols. Wilfert hopes this will serve as a valuable lesson for anyone looking to swim in the ocean in the region.
“There’s a lot of beaches that we have around here that there’s no lifeguards, and they have the presence of these great whites, and you need to take it seriously,” he said. “I’m taking it seriously. I won’t be swimming the buoys for a while.”
Wilfert was not hurt in the incident.
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