Officials ID victim in Cape Cod shark attack
Swimming will remain off-limits at a popular Cape Cod beach until at least the weekend after a man was attacked Wednesday by a shark in Truro.
Sources tell WCVB a man was bitten by a shark at Longnook Beach in Truro. The beach is on the Atlantic Ocean side of the peninsula.
The Cape Cod National Sea Shore identified the man as William Lytton, 61, from Scarsdale, New York.
Assistant Truro Harbormaster Gary Sharpless said the man suffered puncture wounds to his torso and legs. Tufts Medical Center said Thursday that Lytton was in serious condition.
Truro said Thursday that due to shark activity, swimming will remain closed through Friday. If no additional shark sightings or activity is reported on Friday, the beach may reopen to swimming on Saturday.
State marine fisheries senior biologist Greg Skomal will try to confirm Thursday if the man's wounds are consistent with a bite from a great white.
The man told first responders he was standing in the water 30 yards offshore when the shark bit him.
Officials with the Cape Cod National Seashore said the location of the incident was approximately 300 yards south of Longnook Beach in Truro, within the boundary of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
Kerstin Peter Leitner and Molly Tobin found the victim lying alone along the shore of the beach.
"He had a large wound in his lower left leg," Tobin, a graduate from the Boston College School of Nursing said.
"We grabbed all the towels that we could, put them on him to stop the bleeding," Kerstin Peter Leitner, another Boston College nursing school graduate said.
"Unfortunately, there's no cellphone service, so someone had to run up to a house to call 911," Tobin said.
A medical helicopter transported the victim from the scene to Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
Officials closed Longnook Beach to swimming until further notice.
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, which has been doing extensive research on sharks in the region, offered its wishes for a full recovery to the victim of Wednesday's shark bite.
"Encounters with white sharks in which people suffer injuries are as terrifying as they are rare," the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy said.
"While we still don't know all of the details of this particular bite, sharks are not known to target people specifically, and when they do bite people, it's usually a case of mistaken identity."
The conservancy said sharks "test the waters" with their teeth, much like humans use their hands. "It's how they determine if what they encounter is prey or something to avoid."
Truro was the site of the last shark attack on Cape Cod, in July 2012, when a Colorado man suffered a bite off Ballston Beach.
There have been several shark sightings in the area in recent days.
In the past decade, the Cape Cod region, especially Truro, has seen an increase in its population of gray and harbor seals. The increased seal population has attracted great white sharks, which depend on seals as the staple of their diet.