Great White Shark Washes Up in Truro
By NBP Staff | August 23, 2018, 16:24 EDT
A dead 9-foot-long great white shark washed up on a beach in Truro on Thursday morning, state authorities and shark researchers said.
The shark had three lead weights in its stomach, according to the Atlantic Shark Conservancy, although researchers had not announced complete results from a necropsy as of Thursday afternoon.
The shark was found along the banks of the Pamet River, which flows into Cape Cod Bay.
The site is not close to the place where a man was bitten and seriously injured by a shark on Wednesday, August 15. That incident took place near Long Nook Beach, which is on the Atlantic Ocean side of Truro a little south of Highland Light.
The victim, William Lytton, 61, of Scarsdale, New York, sustained deep puncture wounds in his hip and torso, according to news reports. His condition was upgraded to good on Wednesday but he remains hospitalized, according to NBC Boston.
James Sulikowski, a shark researcher at the University of New England, told The Boston Globe last week that the shark incident involving Lytton should not be described as an “attack.”
“It’s not an attack. It’s not like the shark was awaiting to come out of the darkness and bite this person. It’s more of a mistaken-identity interaction, more than anything else. It’s nothing to get alarmed about,” Sulikowski said, according to the Boston Globe.
Truro, at about 2,000 year-round residents, is the smallest town on Cape Cod. Its just south of Provincetown, which is at the northern tip of the Cape.
As for the dead great white shark that washed up this morning, the Massachusetts Environmental Police and the Atlantic Shark Conservancy posted images online:
A Massachusetts Environmental Police Officer responded to a report of a great white shark that had washed ashore on a beach in Truro. The shark is deceased. Also on scene is the @CCSPtown and @A_WhiteShark. A necropsy will be performed to determine the shark's cause of death. pic.twitter.com/ttPq3FFdPm
— MAEnviroPolice (@MAEnviroPolice) August 23, 2018
The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy received a call this morning about a dead male white shark in Truro, estimated to be about 9 feet. Researchers from @MassDMF and @NOAAFish_NEFSC have been called to come take samples. Photos from Cooper DeNyse. pic.twitter.com/zf130eczcQ
— Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (@A_WhiteShark) August 23, 2018