Surfing Teen Loses Arm in Shark Attack

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HAENA, Hawaii — A 13-year-old surfer's left arm was severed during a shark attack in clear water Friday morning on Kauai's North Shore.

The girl, whose name has not been released, was surfing about a half mile off Makua beach near Haena when the attack occurred at about 7:30 a.m., said Cyndi Ozaki, spokeswoman for Kauai County.

The girl, who lives on Kauai, was treated for shock and taken to a local hospital, Ozaki said, adding that the girl's arm had not been found.

"Some people who had helped her out there had managed to slow the bleeding down," Ozaki said. "The water was crystal clear according to people in the area, and there was no indication that there was a shark nearby."

She said county lifeguards from Hanalei were out on personal watercraft warning people in the water about the shark. County officials have closed the beaches between Ke'e Beach and Wainiha Beach until at least Saturday morning.

Officials believe it was a large shark based on the bite marks found on the girl's surfboard, she said.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101851,00.html
 
And to think I was in those waters 2 weeks ago! Yikes!

My thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family.

Chris
 
LIHUE, Hawaii (Nov. 1) - The water was clear and there was no indication of danger when a 13-year-old surfing star went out on the waves with her best friend and her friend's father.

But while Bethany Hamilton was lying on her board off Kauai's North Shore, a shark bit once and then disappeared, taking off her left arm just below the shoulder.

"Nobody saw it happen. She just yelled, 'A shark bit me!"' said her father, Tom Hamilton.

Bethany Hamilton remained in stable condition Saturday after the attack Friday morning. Doctors at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said her top condition as a competitive athlete helped her survive the attack.

Bethany, of Princeville, was attacked in an area known as Tunnels a quarter-mile off Makua Beach near Haena.

Bethany was surfing with best friend Alana Blanchard, also 13, and Alana's father, Holt Blanchard, her family said.

Blanchard immediately applied a tourniquet to Hamilton's arm using a surfboard leash, the family said.

After the attack, lifeguards from Hanalei went out on personal watercraft to warn people in the water about the shark, said Cyndi Ozaki, spokeswoman for Kauai County. County officials also closed the area between Ke'e and Wainiha beaches.

"The water was crystal clear according to people in the area, and there was no indication that there was a shark nearby," she said.

The shark took a chunk out of Bethany's surfboard that measured about 16 inches across and 8 inches deep, penetrating nearly to the center of the board, which suggests the shark was 12 to 15 feet long, Kaden said. It may have been a tiger shark, said Randy Honebrink, spokesman for the state Shark Task Force.

Bethany is a competitive surfer who already had secured sponsorships and was expected to go pro, according to the Hanalei Surf Online Web site.

In August, she won the explorer women's division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association's Open and Explorer event on Kauai. In May, she won the women's division at the Local Motion-Ezekiel Surf Into Summer contest at Ala Moana on Oahu, beating out older surfers.

It was Hawaii's fourth shark attack this year. Honebrink said Hawaii averages three or four shark attacks a year. Hawaii's last shark attack this year was Oct. 5, when a woman was bitten while swimming near Kihei on Maui, Honebrink said.
 
Now here is something I wanted to bring up about this accident.

On the news this morning a marine biologist said something to the affect that, shark attacks have been down. Surfers are more prone to shark attacks than are scuba divers or snokelers. He based this statement on the "fact" that surfers are in the water longer than other "water users."

That doesn't seem correct to me. I would think world wide that there are more divers in the water than there are surfers. Of course we don't flop around on the surface like a big old turtle.

Any opinions?
 
I was watching a documentary on sharks and they suggested that surfers are more prone to shark attacks due to the fact that the view from below of a surfer (the shape of a surf board with limbs projecting from it) mimics that of a seal...
Interesting idea... does anyone know how good sharks eyesight is? Because if its not that great (assuming they rely more on their immense sense of smell) then the shark can be forgiven for mistaking the silhouette for a 13 yr old surfer for a seal!

Food for thought!

:D :D :D

PS That story made the METRO today, which is the daily paper distributed on the London Underground (UK)!
 
The surfers get hit the most, by sharks. Its just a hazard of the preoccupation.

You have to feel sympathy for the sharks as well. They think they have spotted a nice fat seal. What they end up with instead is a grisley, boney, rubbery surfer instead. Then some marine patrol boat hunts the shark down and kills it.

God created sharks for a purpose. They serve as the oceans' garbage collectors, eating dead whales and other large, slow, dead things. They are just doing their jobs.

Thought I would chime in for the sharks. Most of this reporting is sensationalized one-sided and anti-shark in the new media.

Glad it wasnt my arm. But then, I dont surf.
 
Hits close to home for me...Son's out surfing now and it's almost dark. He's competitive also

When I diving, I don't get overly concerned...When I'm surfing, they really freak me out. On time a Tiger shark chased almost to the beach.
Birds diving, fins etc surfing are really freaky
 
I have read reports of swimmers being attacked by sharks and of course the surfers. But I have never heard of a scuba diver being attacked by a shark.

Even when we do drift diving and we are bobbing around on the surface for 5-10 minutes waiting to get picked up. I would think that at that time we would look like a tender morsel.

So, are there more scuba divers than surfers, first of all? Secondly, how come the sharks don't bite us? (not that I'm complaining.)
 
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