SCARBOROUGH, Maine (WBZ) \u2014 A veteran lifeguard with 55 years of experience was dragged underwater by a great white shark during a routine patrol off Scarborough this weekend, officials said.<\/p>\n
Greg Wilfert, 71, said the shark grabbed his rescue device and pulled him under with a force he had never felt before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of force that pulled me under I\u2019ve never felt anything like that, never,\u201d Wilfert said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I knew it was a great white\u2019<\/p>\n
Wilfert said he initially thought he had been caught in a boat propeller before realizing there was no boat nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I got caught in a boat propeller and it pulled me under 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wilfert said he freed himself by slipping the strap off his rescue buoy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said I gotta get out of here. I got one chance and I slipped that thing off as fast as I could and I swam to the surface and I just b-lined it for the shoreline,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beach closed, search launched<\/p>\n
After reaching shore, Wilfert said he immediately began warning others in the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was screaming, just screaming for people to get out of the water because I didn\u2019t know where that thing was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The beach was closed for an hour while a drone and jet skis searched the area.<\/p>\n
Shark sightings described as unusually high<\/p>\n
Officials said at least a dozen sharks were spotted over the weekend along several Scarborough beaches, a number they described as unusually high even for this time of year.<\/p>\n
Surfer Carl Smith said the activity was unlike anything he had seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been surfing and sailing here for a long time and I\u2019ve never really experienced this, it\u2019s wild,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Smith added that beachgoers were trying to stay cautious. \u201cIt\u2019s a little disconcerting but I guess you try to stay safe out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alert remains in effect<\/p>\n
The beach remains on a red and yellow alert, requiring beachgoers to check with lifeguards before entering the water. The alert will remain in place until sharks are no longer in the area, officials said.<\/p>\n
Wilfert said people can still enjoy the beach but urged caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still can have fun at the beach but play it safe,\u201d he said. \u201cStay close to shore, you don\u2019t need to go out into the deep water, you\u2019re asking for trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WBZ via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCARBOROUGH, Maine (WBZ) \u2014 A veteran lifeguard with 55 years of experience was dragged underwater by a great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[264176,85,46,264177,264178,264179,264175,141,386],"class_list":["post-584180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-great-white-shark-maine-beach","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lifeguard-shark-attack","tag-maine-beach-shark-sighting","tag-scarborough-beach-safety-alert","tag-scarborough-maine-shark-attack","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}