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Officials say swimmers are allowed back in the water in Babylon after a shark sighting Wednesday.

The sighting happened at Overlook Beach, near Cedar and Gilgo beaches, around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Officials tell News 12 that lifeguards spotted a fin from 6-foot shark about 80 yards offshore and told swimmers to get out. They then closed the beach.

Officials say the shark didn't appear to threaten anyone, but they took no chances.

Despite recent reports of sightings and attacks along the East Coast, Dr. Jim Gelsleichter, from the University of North Florida, says sharks don't prey on people.

"If they really were after us, we would see shark attacks or shark-related injuries to be much more common," he says.

Experts say that there are more reports of shark sightings because of cellphones, cameras and social media, not because more sharks are swimming closer to the coast.

They also say that there are harmless species of sharks and that some fish are mistaken for sharks.

Lifeguards at the beach say they are well-trained to spot any dangers and get people out of the water.

Officials say swimmers are allowed back in the water in Babylon after a shark sighting Wednesday.    The sighting happened at Overlook Beach, near Cedar and Gilgo beaches, around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

Here previewing the 27th annual Dickens Festival inside the Port Village Community Center. It is such a great event this weekend and there are so many great events this weekend as the first weekend really of the holiday season kicks off. So let's get to Rich Hoffman to see what the weather is going to be like. A little bit of wet weather out there. Rich. Yeah, we're going to be watching that wet weather in Port Jefferson this weekend also from Babylon, the Riverhead to Hempstead. Some showers coming in this evening, hyperlocal high today of 53 degrees. Our morning hours dry with some sunshine. And this afternoon here come the clouds and that wet weather and it's kind of a 5050 weekend. So if you are headed towards Port Jeff right now, Saturday is the better day. Kind of mostly cloudy, maybe a little drizzle and fog in the morning. Look at that temperature of 56 degrees. Then on Sunday, the rain comes in, it's cloudy. Some of that rain could be kind of steady during the afternoon hours with a temperature around 52 degrees. So one day is dry, one day is going to be a little bit more wet and you can see this morning we've had some sunshine, clouds are on the increase. Here comes our wet weather, low pressure system moving in and that's why we'll see these showers towards this evening showers developing from five pm to 8 p.m. The wet weather is there for tonight. So any evening plans will be a little bit wet. Then overnight kind of some drizzle and fog again, your Saturday is mainly gonna be dry coming in. There may be a little patchy drizzle and then going to Sunday, we do watch some wet weather. Highs are in the fifties for today. Tracking those evening showers, wet weather is with us tonight. Lows are in the forties and then looking at that extended forecast, 56 dries Saturday, some drizzle Sunday rain in the afternoon, most of next week looks nice and kind of chilly for the start of Hanukkah.

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Shark spotted at Babylon beach