A shark swam through flooded New Jersey streets this weekend as a violent nor’easter pushed bay water over Long Beach Island and left Surf City under as much as four feet of water.
A local resident captured the fish on video Saturday in Surf City, its dorsal fin cutting the surface of the floodwaters near a woman’s driveway after Barnegat Bay spilled over.
The clip shows the shark moving through the inundated street and reportedly swimming up toward the resident’s home on Long Beach Island while the nor’easter battered the coast.
In the footage, a woman can be heard reacting as the animal approaches.
She asks, “Is that a little shark?”
Moments later she says, “Oh my God, he’s coming this way.”
Reporting on the video noted that ABC News obtained the footage, credited to Drew Procaccino.
Dr. Greg Skomal, a white shark expert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, said the animal appears to be a dogfish.
Skomal described that type of shark as harmless, common to the area, and one without sharp teeth.
No injuries tied to the shark were reported. The story is the odd sight of a marine animal riding storm floodwaters straight into a residential street.
Surf City took on as much as four feet of water over the weekend as the nor’easter drove widespread flooding along the East Coast.
Winds reached up to 70 mph and knocked out power for thousands.
Barnegat Bay flooding over turned ordinary blocks into temporary channels. That is how a dogfish ended up finning past a driveway instead of staying in open water.
Long Beach Island residents got a close look at what happens when a strong coastal storm shoves bay water inland. Streets became shallows. Wildlife followed the water.
The video does not show a dramatic chase or an attack. It shows a small shark moving through floodwater while people on dry ground watch and react in real time.
Officials and experts pointed to identification and context, not panic. A dogfish in storm surge is strange. It is not the same as a large predatory shark hunting a neighborhood.
Nor’easters pile water against the shore and force it into low-lying towns. When the bay crests, fish go with it.
That mechanism matches what the Surf City video captured: flood depth measured in feet, a fin at the surface, and a resident’s startled voice as the animal drifted closer to the house.
Power outages and coastal flooding were the broader weekend story. The shark clip became the detail people remembered.
Coastal towns live with this bargain. Beautiful waterfront. Real weather. When the surge comes in, the boundary between bay and street disappears for a while.
Saturday’s footage from Long Beach Island put that bargain on camera in the simplest way possible, a shark where cars usually park.
When the bay claims the street, everything that swims in the bay gets a temporary new route. Residents who keep their eyes open will see it.
