Greater Long Island coverage is funded in part by Toresco & Simonelli, a boutique injury and family law firm in West Islip. They fight for their clients. Click here to get in touch.

Good Samaritans pulled the semiconscious kayaker onto a sandbar before marine police reached him off Sore Thumb Beach

A Shirley man clamming from his kayak in the Great South Bay was dragged underwater Wednesday morning when his boat began to sink and his waders filled with water near Gilgo State Park, police said.

Good Samaritans pulled the 68-year-old man from the water off Sore Thumb Beach and stayed with the semiconscious man on a sandbar until Suffolk Police Marine Bureau officers reached him, cops said.

A 911 caller reported a kayaker in distress about a quarter mile off Sore Thumb Beach at 11:07 a.m. Marine Bureau officers Christopher Maggio, Thomas Ciota, Kyle Profit and Brendan Grogan responded to the call.

The officers waded through knee-deep water to get to the man, police said. They secured him to a backboard and carried him to the police boat Marine Juliet, before bringing him to shore in Babylon.