Scarborough lifeguard who escaped shark encounter: ‘I felt like I had a job to do’
Greg Wilfert at Scarborough Beach State Park in 2021. Wilfert, a veteran lifeguard and the director of Scarborough Beach State Park, had a close encounter with a great white shark in the waters off the beach over the weekend. (Steve Minich/WMTW-TV via AP)
An encounter with a great white shark over the weekend and the media feeding frenzy that followed left longtime lifeguard Greg Wilfert asking himself questions late Monday.
“‘What did you feel like when you got back to shore?’” Wilfert asked himself during an interview with the Portland Press Herald late Monday. “I felt like I had a job to do.”
The veteran lifeguard and director of Scarborough Beach State Park managed to escape after a shark dragged him underwater by the rescue torpedo that he had strapped to himself Saturday afternoon.
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News broke via a Scarborough Police Department news release on the close encounter on Monday, and Wilfert had an afternoon and evening full of interviews as the news spread through Maine and beyond.
Police said the lifeguard was swimming with a rescue torpedo — a flotation device used in water rescues — when the shark grabbed it, pulling him 5 to 6 feet below the surface.
“At first, I thought I got caught in a boat propeller,” Wilfert said. “Once I was under the water, I knew it wasn’t a boat propeller.”
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The rescue torpedo was attached to the him by a strap.
“It just goes over your head and under your arm,” Wilfert explained. “I slipped out of it and got back to the surface, and I just started swimming as fast as I could to shore.
“I kept going and going, just hoping nothing was behind me.”
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A bystander reported that the rescue torpedo, sometimes referred to as a rescue can, flew several feet out of the water soon after the lifeguard escaped, police said.
“People on the beach said they saw this rescue can come flying up from under the water and going up in the air about 4 to 5 feet,” Wilfert said.
Wilfert said Monday that he feels fortunate it didn’t end another way. But once he was in shallow enough water to stand Saturday, it was all business.
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“Did I sleep that night? You’re damn right I did,” he said.
SHARK AWARE
Wilfert said his encounter Saturday “wasn’t the start” of sharks being top of mind at Scarborough Beach. The episode followed numerous reports of shark sightings near beach towns last week, including two spotted Tuesday at Pine Point Beach and five to seven more spotted a day later.
Reid State Park in Georgetown was also temporarily closed to swimming Friday due to a shark sighting.
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Following the sightings in Scarborough earlier that week, lifeguards went into “shark protocol” on Thursday, Wilfert said, and began scanning the water using a drone. They didn’t spot any.
On Friday, “because everyone in the public was worried,” they wanted to have a more visible presence and put a Jet Ski in the water and had vehicles to patrol the beach.
Wilfert said he was swimming with other lifeguards Saturday who were closer to land at the time of the encounter. They had plotted their swim out to a set of buoys for low tide to be about 150 yards from shore.
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When Wilfert got close enough to shore, he said he began yelling at everyone to get out of the water.
Scarborough Beach State Park was closed to swimming for an hour while officials assessed the situation.
“Will I swim the buoys this year?'” Wilfert said. “No. I’ll swim, but I’ll be in chest-deep water.”
If he or his lifeguards have to go deeper, they’ll have a drone over them watching for sharks.
MORE SIGHTINGS
People have continued to spot white sharks at Scarborough Beach State Park and Higgins Beach, including the nearshore waters and sandbar areas, police said Monday. Wilfert said there have been over a dozen sightings at Scarborough Beach, including by his lifeguards patrolling on jet skis — and “they’re not all the same shark.”
Police urged beachgoers to use caution when entering the water and said the sharks’ presence is “an ongoing concern” for the town.
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Wilfert said they are directing swimmers to stay within a safe distance from shore at Scarborough Beach, but he doesn’t foresee shutting down swimming entirely.
“I have enough lifeguards on duty to keep this safe and allow people to still enjoy the water,” he said.
He said he’s grateful for his dedicated team of lifeguards, some of whom offered to work on their days off following Wilfert’s encounter.
“I just recommend people swim near a lifeguard,” he said. “Whether it’s sharks or rip currents, we’re very preventive, and we get people out before we have to make a rescue.”
Karl Ramsdell, a Maine-based wildlife photographer, has been following the shark activity over the past week, posting a series of videos to social media. He said once he puts his drone up, he can fly it from shark to shark.
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Ramsdell said he’s been droning the area of Pine Point for about eight years, but until this year, he had never captured videos of them.
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“If you go in the ocean in Saco Bay, you’re surrounded by them basically,” he said. “It just blows my mind that, all these years, I’ve never droned a shark — and this year, they’re all over the place.”
People should get out of the water immediately when instructed by lifeguards and public safety personnel, report shark sightings, avoid swimming if there are seals or large schools of fish or if alone, and understand that shark activity can occur close to shore and in relatively shallow water.
Staff Writer Andrew Rice contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Aug. 11 to include an interview with Greg Wilfert.
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Tagged: great white sharks, lifeguard, maine beaches, shark
Salomé Cloteaux is a community reporter covering Scarborough and Westbrook. She was born in France but lived in Indiana for most of her life before moving to Portland in November 2025. Salomé has a degree. More by Salomé Cloteaux
Drew is the night reporter for the Portland Press Herald. He previously covered South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth for the Sentry, Leader and Southern Forecaster. Though he is from Massachusetts,. More by Drew Johnson
