‘Some sort of sea life’ attacks swimmer off North Carolina, cops say. Theory emerges

Something attacked a man swimming off North Carolina, but investigators aren’t ready to declare it a shark encounter.

It happened around 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday, June 18, off Sunset Beach, a tourist town about a 180-mile drive southeast from Raleigh.

“The Sunset Beach Police Department was dispatched ... for reports of a 20-year-old man who suffered a laceration to his lower leg while in the Atlantic Ocean,” police said in a June 18 news release.

“It appears the injury was caused by some sort of sea life. It is unknown what exactly caused the injury.”

The victim’s identity was not released.

Sunset Beach Police Chief Ken Klamar says a caller reported the victim was “bitten by a shark while swimming,” The Brunswick Beacon said. “Of course, we get there and there’s no way to tell what it was,” he told the Beacon.

One possibility is a stingray attack, Klamar told McClatchy News in an email.

“The victim did state that he stepped on something ‘flat,’ and then felt the pain of being injured. This leads us to believe it was a stingray that injured the victim with its tail, versus a bite of some kind,” he said.

“Likewise, the laceration did not look like a bite.”

Stingrays use their barbed tail for defense when attacked, and the sting is intensely painful and requires emergency care, experts say.

“The small spines contain venom and can penetrate a human’s skin,” according to webmd.com. “The stinger will usually leave a mark and cause swelling and pain that might last multiple days to weeks. Stingray stings can also cause allergic reactions and life-threatening shock.”

Sunset Beach is on one of North Carolina’s barrier islands near the South Carolina state line.

This story was originally published June 21, 2024 at 7:43 AM with the headline "‘Some sort of sea life’ attacks swimmer off North Carolina, cops say. Theory emerges."