Jaws state suffers first shark attack death for 80 years (2024)

A boogie-board rider has become the first person in 82 years to be killed by a shark in the state where Jaws was filmed.

The man was hauled out of the water at Newcomb Hollow Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Saturday. A great white is thought to have been responsible for the attack.

Bystanders performed CPR, wrapped a tourniquet around the wound and called an ambulance but the victim later died in hospital.

He has been named as Arthur Medici, 26, inset above, a Brazilian who had moved to the United States to attend university two years ago and lived in Revere, northeast of Boston.

The attack took place about 30ft from the shore and less than 50 miles from Martha’s Vineyard, the affluent summer resort that became the fictional Amity Island in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film.

The big screen thriller, which has warped attitudes to sharks around the world ever since, sprang immediately to mind for at least one witness to the weekend’s attack.

“I was that guy on the beach screaming, ‘Shark, shark’,” said Joe Booth, a fisherman and surfer who saw Mr Medici kick aggressively and then caught a glimpse of a tail piercing the water’s surface.

“It was right out of that movie Jaws. This has turned into Amity Island real quick out here.”

Mr Medici’s death is the first from a shark attack in American waters for three years and the first in Massachusetts since 1936. The last attack, however, occurred off Cape Cod last month. William Lytton, 61, was in the water about ten miles from Saturday’s incident. He was only a few yards from the shore when he felt a shark’s jaws clamp round his leg. He freed himself by punching the creature in the gills, he told The Boston Globe. He hopes to leave hospital later this month.

The exact type of shark involved in the latest incident has not been officially revealed but visitors to the beach are greeted by a sign warning them to “Be Shark Smart” against great whites.

It instructs them to avoid swimming near seals, to stay close to shore in waist deep water and to swim or surf in groups. The warning informs users that the inshore waters off the town of Wellfleet are a “feeding ground” for great white sharks.

“They come to this area to feed on seals. Great white sharks are predators and should be considered dangerous. Encounters with sharks are rare, but please remain alert,” it adds.

The seal population in the area has grown recently, drawing sharks in aggressive pursuit of their preferred prey, according to Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Programme for Shark Research.

He said that there had been recent reports of 10-12ft great white sharks in the area and added that it was likely that a great white was behind the attack at the weekend.

It was probably a case of mistaken identity, he told The Washington Post, with the shark believing that the boogie-boarder was its natural prey. But even a shark’s initial investigation could prove deadly, he added.

“A 12ft long, 1,200lb white shark moving at 20 knots with an open mouth does a bit of damage,” he said. “They’re like a truck when they get bigger.”

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