What to Know
- The SUNY professor attacked by a shark in the water off Cape Cod has been released from a hospital
- The 61-year-old from Scarsdale, suffered "deep puncture wounds" to his torso and leg; it's still not clear what kind of shark bit him
- There have been numerous shark sightings off Cape Cod in recent weeks, including several close calls involving fishermen
The 61-year-old SUNY professor bitten by a shark while standing in the water just 30 yards off a Cape Cod beach earlier this month has been released from the hospital, a spokesman said Monday, days after a great white shark washed up on the beach near where he had been swimming when he was attacked.
The great white that washed up on a beach in Truro last week was about 9 feet long and was said to be a male; a necropsy will be conducted to determine how it died. It's still not clear what kind of shark attacked William Lytton, but Massachusetts' leading shark expert has been looking into whether his wounds were consistent with a bite from a great white.
The SUNY Downtown professor from Scarsdale, New York, suffered "deep puncture wounds" to his torso and leg in the attack near Long Nook Beach Aug. 15. A spokesman for Tufts Medical Center in Boston said Monday that Lytton had been recently released, but that person couldn't say when Lytton left or whether he was transferred to another facility or sent home, citing patient privacy laws.
Lytton had been in serious condition for days following the attack. He was the first person to be attacked by any kind of shark in Massachusetts waters since 2012. It's not clear if anyone saw the creature before the attack.
A group of nursing graduate students were at the beach at the time of the attack and stepped in to help the bitten man until emergency crews arrived.
"We just kind of gave him towels, wrapped his leg up because there was clearly a shark bite there," said Molly Tobin, one of the grads. "A bunch of people helped with carrying him down the beach."
U.S. & World
There have been a number of close encounters in recent weeks, with sharks leaping out of the water after fishing lines and one even jumping at a shark scientist who was on a research boat.
There have been 10 great white shark sightings in the last week or so, and more than 60 over the last month off Cape Cod, according to the Sharktivity app.
