Christopher Myers, who was bitten by what is believed to be a shark while swimming off a Truro, Mass., beach this week, was released from Massachusetts General Hospital this morning, he told the Times.
"I love Ballston Beach," he said. He called the incident a cautionary tale.
He said he met with state shark researcher Greg Skomal yesterday and that he believed Skomal was going to talk with Australian experts as part of his review of the case.
Skomal examined Myers and asked for a detailed account of what happened, said Reginald Zimmerman, assistant press secretary for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
"He's still conducting his assessment," Zimmerman said, adding that Skomal's determination could come today.
At 3:35 p.m. Monday, 911 callers reported a man bitten by a shark while swimming at Ballston Beach.
Eyewitnesses said they saw Myers and his son, J.J., swimming far off the beach. They also described a large black dorsal fin rising up between them. The two men swam to shore, and bystanders and rescuers treated Myers for bites to his legs. He was taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis and then transferred to the Boston hospital.
On Tuesday, Skomal, a shark biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game's Division of Marine Fisheries, said the "weight of evidence" pointed to the animal being a great white shark.
At that point, he had reviewed eyewitness accounts of the incident and considered factors such as the presence of seals in the area and the extent of the injury. But he said he still needed to talk to Myers and see his wounds.
Great whites have long, pointed snouts with distinctive, triangular-shaped teeth serrated like a steak knife, said George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File and director of the Florida program for shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
They often attack from below and behind, similar to how the Ballston Beach attack was described, Burgess said.
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News Column
Shark Victim Being Released From Hospital
Aug. 3, 2012
Mary Ann Bragg
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Source: (c)2012 the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) Distributed by MCT Information Services
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