Great White Blamed for Cape Cod Attack

A Massachusetts swimmer has been hospitalized with serious leg injuries after what experts believe was an attack by a great white shark—the state's first since 1936. Witnesses said they saw a dorsal fin break the water near where the man was swimming off Cape Cod, reports the Boston Herald. He struggled to shore with bites on his legs that were so deep witnesses said they could see bone. The attack happened some 15 miles from where a kayaker was chased by a great white last month.

"The weight of evidence—including eyewitness sightings of a fin, the presence of seals, and the extent of injury—points to a great white shark," a state expert says. But scientists won't be able to confirm the attack until they examine the injuries and speak to the victim. Large number of seals in the Cape Cod area have attracted great white sharks, but experts say it's very rare for them to go after humans. "The reality is that even though I don't want to be around a white shark, I could probably paddle around one and blow bubbles in the water and the animal would probably do nothing," a scientist at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies tells the Los Angeles Times. (More Cape Cod stories.)