DLNR: Eyewitness saw shark feeding during suspected attack

An eyewitness saw a “red cloud” in the waters around a shark off Keawakapu Beach where a snorkeler went missing last week, according to state officials, who released more details about the incident Friday as they sought to quell misinformation spreading online.

A report from the investigating officer with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement classified the woman’s disappearance as “shark attackfatal,” based on information from the woman’s husband and an eyewitness. The Maui Police Department terms the disappearance as a “miscellaneous accident-fatal.”

“DOCARE concluded that this was a tragic accident,” DLNR said in a news release Friday. “It’s unfortunate that this family’s grief is exacerbated not only by not having their loved one’s body recovered, but by misinformation which spread quickly on social media platforms, suggesting that this was something other than what it was.”

On Dec. 8, officers responded to reports of a shark attack at the end of South Kihei Road fronting Keawakapu Beach. At the time, Maui County Ocean Safety lifeguards, Maui Fire Department and Emergency Services personnel and the U.S. Coast Guard were actively searching the water for “a missing female, possibly the victim of a shark bite,” according to a DOCARE report.

Officers interviewed the missing woman’s husband, who said he encountered an “aggressive” shark shortly after entering the water to snorkel about 50 yards offshore. He said he and his wife were not snorkeling right next to one another and that he could only see her from time to time. As the shark continued to circle him, he continued looking for his wife and thought that she might have been diving toward the ocean floor.

He told officers the shark swam off while he continued popping his head out of the water and scanning the surface to look for his wife. He spotted something in the distance, and when the shark came back, he could see something red around the shark’s gills. At the time, he said people on the beach began yelling at him to get out of the water because a shark was feeding in the area.

DLNR said the husband’s statement is corroborated by an eyewitness on the beach who said he saw a large shark feeding on something in the water. Earlier he’d spotted the couple snorkeling and began looking for them to warn them, “when he saw the shark’s large mouth continuing to feed on something in the middle of the red cloud in the water.” He continued yelling for the man to get out of the water but could no longer see the woman. The witness called 911 to report the incident.

First responders called off the search at noon on Dec. 9 after they were unable to find the body of the 60-year-old Washington state woman.

“DLNR is asking people who post misinformation and conspiracy theories anonymously to stop and think about how they’d react if they were in the same situation,” the agency said. “Social media can either be a powerful tool for sharing information or a mouthpiece for tremendously hurtful and inaccurate comments directed toward people who are dealing with a tragedy.”