Shark Attack 12/21 in South Maui
 

Per the Honolulu Advertiser:
http://starbulletin.com/2005/12/22/news/story01.html
((S))((*))

It was in the news - he lost one finger and part of another one.

So the warning signs were posted and he went swimming anyway????

GoTravel, the way I read it is that they posted warning signs and closed the beach after he was attacked...not before. Though I agree that the way they wrote it is unclear.
((S))((*))

"were closed in the aftermath of the shark attack"

Seems clear enough to me, they closed the beaches after the attack occurred.

Sorry I didn't read the article, but please tell me, was it Kal who was attacked? He's vacationing on Hawaii these days.

Naaaa - the only sharks attacking Kal are here!

Thanks for posting the article, <font color="blue">kamahinaohoku</font>, had my own first shark encounter a couple weeks ago: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34719670

Good one gyppielou!!

Belle

John - all I can say is wow, are you ever lucky.

I've only seen sharks in the water twice while SCUBA diving. One 9-foot black tip in the Caribbean about 30 years ago and a relatively harmless nurse shark on the back side of Molokini Crater about 15 years ago. Neither got close enough to me to be threatening, which was fine by me.
((S))((*))

I am curious to know if this guy was swimming in murky waters? I have been getting a lot of flood alerts for Kauai and the North Shore of Oahu. I know you are more at risk if you swim in waters clouded up by a storm.

Reply to <font color="blue">kamahinaohoku</font>, mahalo for sharing! I guess my caribbean reef shark was ((P)) shy, even though my camera was out of film it may have helped divert him away-I sure wouldn't be up to giving him a finger.:S-

John, scary isn't it? I've encountered a shark twice at most over at least 100 snorkel and dives. Oh the adreniline!

My husband, who is a dive master, got bumped by a great white while diving in the kelp forest in a red tide off the coast of San Diego. He was very fortunate.

I live on the beach and it horrifies me to see people in the water when the schools of baitfish start jumping. They don't realize that something much bigger is making them jump.

My husband and I were snorkeling off the coast of Isla Murjeres in Mexico and ran into a school of about 12 of those four foot long barracuda. I screamed through my mask and snorkel and obviously scared the fish because they were outta there quick!

Who would have thought you could yell at fish?

:-D

Hey <font color="blue">GoT</font>, thanks for sharing-curious what kind of sharks and in which waters you saw them((?))
Do you snorkel/dive with any means of defense now based on your encounters:?

Hi John!

One time that particularly stands out in my mind was when my husband and I spent a week fishing, snorkeling and diving in the Florida Keys back in the fall of 2001. We were done fishing around noon (fish stopped biting)and anchored the boat off the lighthouse at Lignumvitae Key. We were trying to set the anchor in about 35 feet of water in underwater desert like conditions and the boat kept dragging along the sand.

I looked up and saw a massive school of pompano followed by barracuda followed by a sand shark.

I guess no one was hungry because the shark nor the barracuda bothered us or the pompano.

Sorry, it was the iron lighthouse at Indian Key on Alligator Reef.

Shark sightings are my most prized &quot;critter encounters&quot; when I go diving. I typically only run into reef sharks and nurse sharks, though. I was told that I saw a galapagos shark once, but I can't really tell the difference on most of them.

I would probably be a mite concerned if I saw a tiger or as with GoT's husband - a great white.

chepar - I always said that if I ever saw a hammerhead under water, it wouldn't have to kill me, because I'd probably already be dead from the fright. For some reason, those things REALLY scare me. Fortunately, I've never seen one.
((S))((*))

He was swimming 400 yards off-shore, in 30 foot deep water, in an area inhabited by turtles, a favorite food of sharks.

kamahinaohoku:

I know people who have seen hammerheads here, but I've not yet been lucky enough. I think my eyes would almost bug out of my head if I did see one, though.

My ultimate &quot;dream critter&quot; sighting is the whale shark. Every winter there are a few sightings off the back wall of Molokini or off the east shore of Oahu - but again, I've not been so lucky.

chepar - any opportunity for such sightings deemed to me by fate, I wholeheartedly offer to you...no strings attached. Whale sharks and hammerheads? - they're all your's with my blessings.
((S))((*))

I read several different accounts, all of which said he was 200 yards from the beach. Still too far IMO, but not as far as 400yds.

kamahinaohoku-

and I thank you very much for all of your &quot;shark sighting opportunity points&quot; :D - I've got all my family's deemed to me too.

It came from the Maui News. http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=15375
My husband said a friend of his who is at the Kama`ole Point Lifeguard station told him the guy was three hundred yards out.

But whether he was 200, 300 or 400 yards out, he was beyond the reef, in deep water and much further out than the average swimmer will ever go. The water was clear enough for him to see the shark clearly in the water. But when you get out that far, you are in their territory.

As I said, he was way too far out, but as he got back in most of the way by himself, and no lifeguards were there, nobody really knows how far out he was. Keawakapu is a gorgeous beach, but there are no lifeguards there.

Also, it's not very smart to go swimming in the ocean by yourself, especially when there aren't any lifeguards on the beach.

chepar, this is the scary thing, he and his best friend never saw the great white, they felt it. After it bumped my husband, it kind of swam the length of him then bumped his friend.

They consider themselves very lucky.

Not that I would want to get close enough to find out; but, aren't Whale Sharks harmless filter feeders?

Reply to <font color="blue">DawnCt</font>, Yes link below lists them as harmless: <font color="blue">marinebio.org/species.asp?id=47
<font color="black">
That being said, in my own experience-having been stepped on by a &quot;harmless&quot; dairy3:O,#o any large animal could inadvertently cause harm especially when out of one's normal element. One of the reasons we continue to visit Molokini is the slim chance of seeing one there.</font></font>

On another note, found Discovery channel's recent airing of &quot;Killer Jellyfish&quot; fascinating, it focused mainly on Australian waters but surprisingly even had a small segment on Waikiki beach.

Hi Dawn,

Whale sharks are harmless to humans and are the ocean's largest fish. They are amazing animals.

Hammerheads are not regarded as generally dangerous - although they have attacked very rarely.

The &quot;BIG THREE&quot; are Great Whites, Makos, and Bulls. (Some add Oceanic Whitetips to the list, but they are open-oceangoing, so people don't come into contact with them much.)

Twice, my husband and I have paid to swim with Caribbean black tip reef sharks on a 40' dive in the open ocean in the Bahamas.

As a frustrated erstwhile marine biologist, sharks are one of my favorite animals.

To be in the open ocean within arms' reach of one of the most enduring and stunningly-designed creatures on the planet is truly awe-inspring.

To know that you are essentially in the zoo animal's cage is an incredble experience.

The chances of anyone encountering a shark while swimming are exceedingly small, and the chance of getting bitten is roughly the same as being hit by a speeding Greyhound bus.

The majority of people bitten by sharks are spearfishing, surfing or grabbing said shark by the tail.

I've been snorkeling and diving literally hundreds of times, and have seen sharks only a handful of times. The one time I have seen a dangerous shark (a bull), was very exciting (to me), but uneventful.

Anytime we are swimming in the ocean, we need to remember that we are in an environment where we can encounter wild animals. (And it's THEIR home, NOT ours.)

Luckily, we are not on the menu. Most times attacks occur when people are in murky water or are mistaken for prey. (Seals look disturbingly like surfers on surfboards from below.)

Go swimming - not at night and not in the morning. Don't worry. :)

Mr. GoTravel just corrected me. It wasn't a great white but a horn shark that bumped him.

Appears some are having a white Xmas to remember: <font color="blue">www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10600884/</font>