The Parks Department ordered Big Apple beaches on the Rockaway Peninsula closed Tuesday afternoon after two more shark sightings, officials confirmed.
The watch closed some of the most accessible beaches in the five boroughs on one of the hottest days of the summer so far — as temperatures in the region are expected to soar well above 90 degrees.
The Rockaway Wave, the peninsula’s community newspaper, reported two sightings on Beach 67th Street and Beach 102nd Street.
That forced Parks Department officials to close all city-run beaches from 9th Street Beach to 149th Street Beach — about seven miles of oceanfront.
A Parks Department spokesman said the beaches would remain closed until the waters were deemed safe and that NYPD helicopters had been called in to provide additional checks from the sky.
Those sightings come after officials in Far Rockaway were forced to close another stretch of beach from 9th to 29th Beach on Sunday following a sighting, according to The Wave.
The Parks Department closed all city beaches from Beach 9th Street to Beach 149th Street in the Rockaways. BRIGITTE STELZER Gov. Kathy Hochul has ordered state agencies to increase patrols of state beaches in Nassau and Suffolk counties. AP/John Minchillo
The waters off nearby Long Island have also been plagued by a spate of shark sightings.
Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered state agencies Monday to begin increasing patrols of state beaches in Nassau and Suffolk counties after at least five attacks and three sightings since the Memorial Day weekend.
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