No, the shark didn’t eat the student’s homework but it did take a bite at his thigh.
The 19-year-old student, Mathew Cornell, was bitten by a 4-foot shark and suffered a laceration on his right thigh as he waded in waist-deep water off New Smyrna Beach, according to a report by WRAL-TV.
“Before I could even react I saw a mouth jump out of the water and it was upside down so I couldn’t see what fin it had, couldn’t tell what type of shark it was,” Cornell said in the report. “It bit and swam away before I could even react or jerk away or anything.”
He drove himself to the hospital to get stitches after getting bandaged by beach patrol, according to the report.
Cornell was shown in the video sitting on his sofa with a bandage on his thigh. He said he would let his professor know why he missed his exam.
“After this I’m gonna send him [his professor] the link to this interview so he could see that I was telling the truth,” Cornell said.
This is the first shark attack in Volusia County this year, according to an article by WKMG News 6.
Cornell said his friends didn’t believe him at first when he told them he was bit by a shark.
“I said guys I just got bit by a shark, they said no you didn’t, turned my leg around blood pouring down they said oh you did,” Cornell said in the report. “New Smyrna Beach is the shark bite capital of the world but you never think that you’re gonna be the one that gets bit.”
