61-year-old man survived a great white shark attack by beating it up

[AlohanAkua]

Dude...

An idyllic dip in the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts turned into an actual nightmare for 61-year-old William Lytton earlier this month. Without warning, a massive shark thought to be a great white snatched Lytton in its powerful jaws, and his quick thinking is probably the only reason he’s alive today.

There’s plenty of advice out there about what to do if you ever find yourself on the wrong end of an aggressive shark, but it’s hard to know what might actually save your life. In the past, some wildlife buffs have advised shark attack victims to punch the shark in the tip of the nose to stun or startle it, but that’s not what worked for Lytton. Instead, Boston Magazine reports that he send a flurry of fists at the creature’s gills.

“I initially was terrified, but, really, there was no time to think,’’ Lytton told reporters. “‘It doesn’t feel like I did anything heroic. A lot of this was luck.”

Luck is probably a good way to describe surviving a shark attack, but Lytton didn’t just lay back and pray that the animal would release its grasp. He says he repeatedly pounded his fists against the side of the shark, likely striking it in its gills, and kept doing so until it decided to abort its attack.

He managed to make it back to the beach and was brought to a local hospital by helicopter for treatment. The Boston Globe reports that he’s already endured six surgeries with another on the horizon. He was initially placed in a medically-induced coma while doctors repaired his body for two days.

The shark, which hasn’t been conclusively identified as a great white by scientists, did Lytton a favor by missing some important nerves when it chomped down. Nevertheless, his recovery will take some time, and he’s not planning on hitting the ocean waves any time soon.

https://bgr.com/2018/08/30/great-white-shark-attack-boston-cape-cod/

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

@Gomig-21 I wonder how far that was from the actual movie site (Martha’s Vineyard) Plus man you’ll need a bigger boat!!

Edit. just Truro

 

[Thorough Pro]

If you hit them real hard, which itself is quite hard to do in water, on the nose or in the gulls they do back away, but it needs courage to not panic seeing these monsters so close to you

Dude...

An idyllic dip in the ocean off the coast of Massachusetts turned into an actual nightmare for 61-year-old William Lytton earlier this month. Without warning, a massive shark thought to be a great white snatched Lytton in its powerful jaws, and his quick thinking is probably the only reason he’s alive today.

There’s plenty of advice out there about what to do if you ever find yourself on the wrong end of an aggressive shark, but it’s hard to know what might actually save your life. In the past, some wildlife buffs have advised shark attack victims to punch the shark in the tip of the nose to stun or startle it, but that’s not what worked for Lytton. Instead, Boston Magazine reports that he send a flurry of fists at the creature’s gills.

“I initially was terrified, but, really, there was no time to think,’’ Lytton told reporters. “‘It doesn’t feel like I did anything heroic. A lot of this was luck.”

Luck is probably a good way to describe surviving a shark attack, but Lytton didn’t just lay back and pray that the animal would release its grasp. He says he repeatedly pounded his fists against the side of the shark, likely striking it in its gills, and kept doing so until it decided to abort its attack.

He managed to make it back to the beach and was brought to a local hospital by helicopter for treatment. The Boston Globe reports that he’s already endured six surgeries with another on the horizon. He was initially placed in a medically-induced coma while doctors repaired his body for two days.

The shark, which hasn’t been conclusively identified as a great white by scientists, did Lytton a favor by missing some important nerves when it chomped down. Nevertheless, his recovery will take some time, and he’s not planning on hitting the ocean waves any time soon.

https://bgr.com/2018/08/30/great-white-shark-attack-boston-cape-cod/

 

[GHALIB]

thank god he got away .

 

[AlohanAkua]

This is the clip burned into my brain when I think of great white sharks:

 

[kuge]

i revere two ocean predators , sharks & orca...

 

[Rafi]

i revere two ocean predators , sharks & orca...

Orca eat great whites for breakfast.

 

[Gomig-21]

@Gomig-21 I wonder how far that was from the actual movie site (Martha’s Vineyard) Plus man you’ll need a bigger boat!!

Edit. just Truro

This guy is lucky to be alive, bro. Did you see the pictures of the bite wound? I have them but don't think I can post them. But looking at them, it's an absolute miracle he made it with the two outer slices that basically cut straight down almost halfway through his leg to the bone at one spot just above his left knee to the other side of the shark's mouth up by his groin area. Those two cuts are so deep it's unbelievable. In the middle it looks like 4, deep scalpel puncture wounds and just clean slices as the shark released him. Truly remarkable. When you look at those teeth, it's evident how pointy they are but you'd never think they would be that razor sharp on the edges.

It's been the talk of the town in all our boating & fishing forums. We've been going to the beaches just south and north of that one (which is actually a nude beach hence is why we don't go to it lol) but we primarily go to High Head beach which is not that far from Long Nook where this happened, just outside of P-Town and have been swimming there for 25+ years. We've never heard of great whites in that area until the last 10 years or so as they've been coming up north in much greater numbers. They're primarily in the cut channel in Chatham because of Monomoy Island which has the largest concentration of seals in the Cape, so they tend to hang out there more so but there's been numerous sightings all over the place, including up this way. Just last week someone was out off the coast of Plum Island in Newburyport and the whole family was swimming in the water. Wife, kids etc. then got back in the boat and before they pulled anchor, a 15ft great white swims across the bow! lol.

But this guy here, the story is that he went out to swim with a bunch of seals that were in the area about 30 yards from shore. I guess the seals were able to scatter a lot faster leaving him as a nice, juicy morsel for the GW. He's very lucky because 2 nurses were on the beach and they knew what to do to control the bleeding until the chopper showed up. That whole stretch of Truro beaches is about 80 feet below a straight, sand wall lege. So you have quite a hike to get up and down from.

 

[jamahir]

This is the clip burned into my brain when I think of great white sharks:

Woo... That's deadly !!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

This guy is lucky to be alive, bro. Did you see the pictures of the bite wound? I have them but don't think I can post them. But looking at them, it's an absolute miracle he made it with the two outer slices that basically cut straight down almost halfway through his leg to the bone at one spot just above his left knee to the other side of the shark's mouth up by his groin area. Those two cuts are so deep it's unbelievable. In the middle it looks like 4, deep scalpel puncture wounds and just clean slices as the shark released him. Truly remarkable. When you look at those teeth, it's evident how pointy they are but you'd never think they would be that razor sharp on the edges.

It's been the talk of the town in all our boating & fishing forums. We've been going to the beaches just south and north of that one (which is actually a nude beach hence is why we don't go to it lol) but we primarily go to High Head beach which is not that far from Long Nook where this happened, just outside of P-Town and have been swimming there for 25+ years. We've never heard of great whites in that area until the last 10 years or so as they've been coming up north in much greater numbers. They're primarily in the cut channel in Chatham because of Monomoy Island which has the largest concentration of seals in the Cape, so they tend to hang out there more so but there's been numerous sightings all over the place, including up this way. Just last week someone was out off the coast of Plum Island in Newburyport and the whole family was swimming in the water. Wife, kids etc. then got back in the boat and before they pulled anchor, a 15ft great white swims across the bow! lol.

But this guy here, the story is that he went out to swim with a bunch of seals that were in the area about 30 yards from shore. I guess the seals were able to scatter a lot faster leaving him as a nice, juicy morsel for the GW. He's very lucky because 2 nurses were on the beach and they knew what to do to control the bleeding until the chopper showed up. That whole stretch of Truro beaches is about 80 feet below a straight, sand wall lege. So you have quite a hike to get up and down from.

This from a few days ago...you better watch it out there. Forward to the 30 second mark. Bet you won't be peering over the edge of your boat anymore!!

LOL! Time 3:05

 

[Gomig-21]

This from a few days ago...you better watch it out there. Forward to the 30 second mark. Bet you won't be peering over the edge of your boat anymore!!

lol, I saw that. It made all the newscasts because that guy is a local who works for the NE Aquarium. That is very aggressive behavior. If you think about it, that thing jumped out of the water to attack Skomel who was another 7-8 feet above the water on that pulpit. That is unusually aggressive behavior. In fact, that was a deliberate attack. The funny thing is how all these conservationists are always trying to downplay the attack role of sharks as coincidental or by accident or whatever. This proves otherwise by a large margin. That GW did not mistake him on that pulpit up high like that for a seal or a juicy meal lol! It was angry for some reason.

I've been to that area several times, going again in a few weeks. That's the cut between Chatham and Monomoy island I was talking about earlier. These guys have an aircraft that spots the great whites from air -- since it's much easier -- and then calls them in to these guys who then just plug in the coordinates on their GPS and head there. They also have a bunch or transmitter buoys scattered about in the water every 1/2 mile or so to pick up the tagged sharks so they can record their movements. You can't hear air traffic on our regular, boat VHF radios so you have to bring a CB radio to listen to the pilot calling in spots and try to find these guys that way. So far in 2 trips out there we've been unlucky and haven't seen any, just a bunch of seals. Hopefully this time we will and I'll get good pics!

This fella spotted a couple of humpback wales 7 miles east of Marblehead last week. He gave us the location and we went out there to see them but of course they weren't there lol. These things never show up when you're actually looking for them. But what great shots he got of them.

These two old guys got more than they bargained for when they went out fishing off the coast of NJ. Humpback whale chasing fish came right up from underneath them and tossed them over. They were very lucky that not only at that age going through a horrifying and traumatic experience, but a boat getting tossed by such power and coming back down on you can of course kill you in an instant. This happens more often than people realize, especially to those who try to get too close to these things and they breach right under and on top of the boats.