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

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.

"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, kamahinaohoku, had my own first shark encounter a couple weeks ago: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...5&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.

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 kamahinaohoku, mahalo for sharing! I guess my caribbean reef shark was 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.

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?

Hey GoT, 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 "critter encounters" 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.

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 "dream critter" 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.