Shark researcher Erich Ritter remained hospitalized Thursday after surgery for a shark bite he suffered while filming for the Discovery Channel in the Bahamas this week.

Ritter, 43, is in the critical care unit at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he cannot accept phone calls for about another four days. He is expected to recuperate at the hospital for another four to eight weeks, colleagues said Thursday.

“His spirits are good,” said Marie Levine, executive director of the Shark Research Institute in Princeton, N.J., where Ritter serves as chief scientist for the Global Shark Attack File.

Levine said early reports that Ritter was working with students during the attack were not correct. On Walker’s Cay in the Bahamas Tuesday, Ritter, researcher Gary Atkinson, Discovery Channel host Nigel Marvin and a film crew were wading waist deep in clear water when a group of bull sharks, lemon sharks and black tip reef sharks swam nearby.

About 15 feet away from the men and film crew, a bull shark began chasing a remora fish. The water became murky from the activity and the bull shark chomped into Ritter’s bare calf instead of the fish. Ritter shook off the shark, believed to weight about 350 pounds, and Atkinson provided first aid until they arrived at St. Mary’s 90 minutes later.

“The shark was following a fish and slammed into Erich,” Levine said. “It was really an error on the shark’s part.”

Ritter was conscious during his treatment and was trying to analyze what happened, Levine said. Walker’s Cay is one of Ritter’s main research sites and one of the few places in the worlds where bull sharks can be filmed in clear water. In the past 10 years, thousands have swum and dived with shark species without any bites.

Ritter had invited the Discovery Channel to film him working with bull sharks for Shark Week 2003, which is a series of shows to help demystify shark behavior, said spokesman Matt Katzive. Ritter specifically invited Nigel Marvin, known for his close encounters with many species on Nigel’s Wild Wild World.

“We don’t know what may or may not have been filmed,” he said of the attack. “Nigel was pretty shaken up by the whole thing.”

The film will be processed, but there is no deadline for it to be done. Discovery Channel officials have not decided whether they will use any footage from Tuesday or whether they will film with Ritter after he heals.

“Our biggest concern right now is obviously for Dr. Ritter’s health,” Katzive said.

Ritter’s fiancM-i and Atkinson have been with him at the hospital, and Ritter is expected to sit in a chair and start moving around today, Levine said.

Hospital spokesman Don Chester said St. Mary’s does not have Ritter logged in its computer system any longer. Levine said Ritter will speak to media once removed from the critical care unit.

Ritter, who moves among homes in Kendall, Walker’s Cay and Switzerland, has said he can keep sharks at bay by modifying his heart rate. Never bitten before, but with scratch scars on his legs, Ritter says he can understand sharks’ body language. Some scientists have questioned his theories.

Neighbors at Ritter’s Miami-Dade County townhouse complex were sorry to hear about the attack. Reinaldo Alfonso said his son always dreamed about getting close to sharks with Ritter.

“I’ve been telling him, ‘One day you’re going to get it, man,'” Alfonso said.

Alfonso’s wife, Alina, said she always worried about Ritter.

“That’s his life. He loved sharks,” she said. “I wonder what he’ll tell us now.”

Staff writers Diana Marrero, Stacey Singer and Kellie Patrick contributed to this report.

Patty Pensa can be reached at or 561-243-6609.