First shark incident of 2021 occurs off Waikoloa

Hawaii’s first shark attack of the year occurred Saturday when a 68-year-old woman suffered a serious leg injury while swimming off Waikoloa, the Hawaii County Fire Department said.

The incident came less than a month after a Maui surfer was fatally bitten by tiger shark at Honolulu Bay on Maui.

Saturday’s incident happened around 8 a.m. as the woman was about 500 yards offshore at Anaehoomalu Bay on the Kohala Coast. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said the captain of an ocean sports vessel reported the incident after hearing calls for help coming from near a channel marker located about 600 feet offshore.

A tender from the Spirit of Aloha tour vessel was used to take the woman to shore, where she was met by first responders who treated her lower right leg injury and transported her to North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea. The woman’s name and condition were not provided.

The size and species of the shark involved in the incident was not immediately known, officials said.

A fire department helicopter flew over the area Saturday, but its crew did not spot any sharks. Shark warning signs were placed a mile on either side of Anaehoomalu Bay and will remain in place until noon today after HFD does another surveillance flight, DLNR officials said.

Tiger sharks are the usual suspects in shark attacks in Hawaiian waters, but it is often difficult to determine the species involved with any certainty.

However, using new DNA bar-coding technology, University of Hawaii researchers and state officials were able to confirm that a tiger shark was responsible for fatal injuries suffered by surfer Robin Warren, 56, of Napili on Dec. 8 at Honolua Bay. The shark’s length, a little more than 14 feet, was determined using measurements of bite marks on the surfer’s board.

According to the DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources’ Hawai‘i Sharks website, there were four other shark incidents in Hawaii in 2020:

>> A Nov. 26 encounter with a suspected tiger shark left a snorkeler with severe wounds to her torso, forehead and left arm at Honokowai, Maui.

>> An 8- to 10-foot requiem shark bit a snorkeler on the left ankle Sept. 6 at Kapuniau Point in Puako, Hawaii island.

>> A surfer was bitten on the right hand June 1 at Davidson’s Beach in Kekaha, Kauai. The shark species is unknown.

>> A 10-foot tiger shark grabbed the tail of a standup paddleboard Feb. 5 off Wailea, Maui.

In 2019, there were 14 shark incidents, including a fatality May 25 involving a swimmer at Honokowai, Maui. There were three in 2018, five in 2017 and 10 in 2016.