Officials in Hawaii say a lady suffered what seemed to be a shark bite Saturday at a bay on Maui’s north shore, and they are advising tourists to avoid the area.
The woman was rushed to a hospital for treatment of a “severe bite,”.According to authorities, the woman was in serious condition when transferred to Maui Memorial Medical Center. The woman was not identified by authorities, although police claimed she was a 51-year-old French traveler.
The event happened on Saturday afternoon at Pia Bay
According to HawaiiNewsNow, bystanders helped bring her to shore until medical services arrived.
“We had all the officials come, lifeguards, police department — we asked everyone to stay out of the water,” Cinthia Pacheco, who was at a nearby beach at the time of the assault, told the station. “I suppose my initial emotion was astonishment, and I felt so awful for the individual.”
Officials posted posters telling residents in the region to stay out of the water until at least noon on Sunday.
According to witnesses, the water was murky following a night of heavy rain
“When a predator is looking for a meal, they generally seize the first item they detect or see that may be a prospective meal.” “Many times, unintentional shark bites are just a case of mistaken identification,” Sea Life Park Aquarist Supervisor Michelle Benedict told the station.
According to a study released last year, shark attacks on people are frequently the consequence of misidentification. According to the survey, sharks have limited color perception if they are not fully color blind, and spatial resolving capacity that is “considerably weaker than humans.” As a result, sharks depend more heavily on motion and brightness contrast when seeking prey. Confirming to state records, there have been at least two more shark attacks in Hawaii this year.