Man thankful after close encounter with shark on Cape waters

Cleveland Bigelow considers himself incredibly lucky to be okay after an incredibly close encounter with a shark in the waters off of Wellfleet left him relatively unharmed.

He was paddleboarding Wednesday morning when out of nowhere a shark grabbed hold of his board.

"All of the sudden it was like being a guy on a bicycle getting hit by a truck,” said Bigelow.

Bigelow was near Marconi Beach paddling out in 3 feet of water… and getting ready to stand-up on the board when the shark latched on.

The 69-year-old says there were seals nearby. He says that he never got a glimpse of the shark.

"It’s not like dun-dun-dun I see the fin coming at me, I never saw the shark coming or going,” said Bigelow.

The experienced surfer says as soon as he knew he was ok, he quickly paddled to shore to warn a group of nearby children in surf school.

"Gotta get them out of the water because who knows whether more was going to happen or not,” said Bigelow.

Greg Skomal, a biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, has been studying great whites on Cape Cod for years. He says this near attack is not all that surprising.

"If you see seals in the area the sharks are hunting the seals. August is a peak month for sharks off the outer shores of Cape Cod. There are areas where sharks get very close to shore to hunt for seals,” said Skomal.

As for Bigelow, he has every intention to head back in the water. But, he does say moving forward he might try harder to steer clear of seals.

"Clearly if the shark was interested in eating people it would have immediately turned around and I wouldn’t be talking to you,” said Bigelow.

Bigelow was not injured by the shark, though he did hurt his leg when his board flipped.

(C) WLNE 2017