{"id":810514,"date":"2026-08-11T22:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/810514\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:24:11","slug":"veteran-lifeguard-71-dragged-underwater-off-the-coast-of-maine-by-great-white-shark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/810514\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran lifeguard, 71, dragged underwater off the coast of Maine by great white shark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A 71-year-old lifeguard and park manager in Maine<\/a> had an encounter with a great white shark off the coast over the weekend. He initially thought his rescue can got caught on a boat after he was dragged underwater.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t a boat. Greg Wilfert, who has worked at Scarborough Beach for 55 years and looks like a guy who should have his own reality show, was pulled five to six feet under the water by a great white.<\/p>\n

He was swimming around the buoys at the time with a few other lifeguards. Luckily, he was able to remove the strap from the rescue device then swim back to shore<\/a> to safety without any further interactions with the shark.<\/p>\n

SHARK WEEK SHOCKER AS GREAT WHITE BREACHES JUST YARDS FROM OBLIVIOUS BOOGIE BOARDER<\/a><\/p>\n

“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 told WHDH.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Great <\/p>\n

Veteran lifeguard in Maine dragged underwater by great white shark. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“I just swam as fast as I could to the surface, and then I just was hoping it wasn’t behind me. I could’ve beaten Michael Phelps.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Once he made it back to shore, his duty as a lifeguard took over. He warned the beachgoers, had them get out of the water, then shut down the beach for an hour.<\/p>\n

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\"Lifeguard <\/p>\n

Lifeguard who has worked at a beach in Maine for 55 years had a close call with a great white shark over the weekend. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

FISHING CONTENT CREATOR WHO FILMED HIMSELF BEING BITTEN BY A SHARK WHILE SPEARFISHING LUCKY HE STILL HAS LEG<\/a><\/p>\n

Since his encounter, Wilfert has had jet skis and drones keeping an eye on the water for other great white sharks<\/a>. While he wasn\u2019t hurt, he is taking his encounter seriously.<\/p>\n

There’s been an increase in great white activity in the area recently and this veteran of the beach isn’t taking any chances.<\/p>\n

\"Great <\/p>\n

Great white shark sightings are up in the area and this 71-year-old lifeguard isn’t taking any chances. (Getty Images\/iStockphoto)<\/p>\n

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“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.<\/p>\n

“I’m taking it seriously. I won’t be swimming the buoys for a while.”<\/p>\n

Sean Joseph is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 71-year-old lifeguard and park manager in Maine had an encounter with a great white shark off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[5300,10482,259935,79,9460,1306,201],"class_list":["post-810514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-beach","tag-maine","tag-outkick-culture","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-trending-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}