A shark bit a 69-year-old man’s paddleboard about 30 yards offshore from a beach on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, closing the area to swimmers for a number of hours Wednesday.
The incident occurred off Marconi Beach in Wellfleet, Kathy Tevyaw, acting superintendent at the Cape Cod National Seashore, told the Cape Cod Times. The beach was reopened for swimming shortly after noon Wednesday.
Confirmed bite by a shark on a paddleboard. No shark injury to paddler. Seashore staff and scientists investigating. No swimming. NPS photo pic.twitter.com/I1K9V4NruM
— Cape Cod NS (@CapeCodNPS) August 23, 2017
Cleveland Bigelow, 69, of Chatham, was not bitten, but he did suffer injuries after being knocked from the board. He told the Cape Cod Times that he was in about 3-4 feet of water when the shark bit his paddleboard. It quickly swam away, he said.
Bigelow had lower leg abrasions and a small hematoma on his right knee but did not require hospitalization, Seashore Chief Ranger Leslie Reynolds told the newspaper.