Scientists say a record number of great white sharks have been swimming off Cape Cod this summer, and one attacked and severely injured a New York doctor who was swimming off Truro on vacation, the first attack on a human there in six years.
Greg Skomal, a state marine biologist who’s been leading a five-year shark study, says his team spotted 149 great white sharks off Cape Cod just in July. That’s twice as many as they counted last year, according to the AP.
The sharks also are moving closer to the beach. Skomal says this may be because his team found many more juvenile sharks this year. The younger sharks, about 8 feet long (half the size of adults), feed on bluefish, menhaden and dogfish that can swim closer to shore. Adult great whites prefer seals.
The increasing number of sharks caused the National Park Service, which runs many of the beaches on the Cape, to close them 25 times this summer, twice the average rate.
Concern about sharks increased after one bit Dr. William Lytton, a 61-year-old neurologist from Scarsdale, New York. He w was swimming in eight to ten feet of water off Truro on Aug. 15 when he said he felt an incredible pain in his left leg. A shark was attacking him. Dr. Lytton said he hit it in the gills and then swam back to shore, where he shouted for help.
His wife was on the beach with their two young daughters. They helped him, and some vacationing nurses helped control the bleeding. A medical helicopter flew Dr. Lytton to Tufts Medical Center in Boston where he was in a coma for two days and then had six surgeries. He is recovering. Read more: http://www.cbs19news.com/content/news/Researchers-looking-into-increase-in-shark-sightings-at-Cape-Cod-492241611.html
