Tiger shark attack reported off Hawai‘i Island

This story was updated Dec. 14.

On Tuesday morning, a 68-year-old man from Waikōloa was bitten by a tiger shark in ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay in Waikōloa. He fended off the animal with a knife before nearby beachgoers responded to his calls for help, according to the Hawai‘i Fire Department.

The man was assisted to shore by stand-up paddle boarders. He sustained puncture wounds and was alert when he was hospitalized at North Hawai‘i Community Hospital in serious but stable condition. He will be transported to Oʻahu for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, according to the Hawaiʻi Police Department.

“He was bitten on his backside,” Fire Dept. Assistant Chief Darwin Okinaka told Big Island Now. “He also experienced some [lacerations] to both his hands as he was trying to fight the shark off.”

The man, who has not been publicly identified, said the tiger shark was approximately 12 feet long in a report issued to the media by the Hawai‘i Fire Department. The incident occurred approximately 300 yards offshore.

Helicopter personnel who swept ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay following the incident did indeed observe a 12 to 15-foot tiger shark in the water, according to Okinaka.

Hawaiʻi Island police ask anyone who may have information about this case to contact Officer Ansel Robinson at 808-887-3080 or by email at ansel.robinson@hawaiicounty.gov.

Shark warning signs went up at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay in Waikōloa on Tuesday morning, according to the Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Additional warning signs have been put up at various resort properties in the area, and by ocean sports operators.

This is the second shark/human encounter in the past week in Hawai‘i.

Last Thursday, a 60-year-old Washington State woman disappeared after her husband and witnesses reported she was attacked by a shark. An extensive search of the area around Keawakapu Point in South Maui failed to find the woman.

The shark incident list in Hawaiʻi: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/sharks/shark-incidents/incidents-list/.