Town holding shark forum after first fatal attack in decades

WELLFLEET, Mass. – The Massachusetts town where a man was fatally attacked by a shark this month is holding a public meeting to consider how the community can respond.

Officials in Wellfleet on Cape Cod are hosting a forum Thursday evening at a local elementary school. The head of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and a seal researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are among those invited to speak.

The forum comes after 26-year-old Arthur Medici, of Revere, was bitten by a shark while boogie boarding off a Wellfleet beach Sept. 15. He was the state’s first fatality from a shark attack in more than 80 years.

A 61-year old New York man was bitten off a beach in nearby Truro in August and is recovering in a Boston hospital.