Page 308 - Hawaii: Diving, Surfing, Pearl Harbor, Volcanoes and More

eople often times underestimate the
Ppower of strong currents, rip tides, high
waves and powerful shorebreaks. To swim in
an ocean is a lot different than in a pool. Also,
sometimes people walk too close to the edge
of a sea cliff and get swept into the ocean by a
sudden, unexpected wave or flash flood.

o bring it into perspective, from 1882 to
T2009, there have been a total of 114 shark
attacks in Hawaii, of which 11 were fatal (the
last being in 2004 when a surfer was killed off
Kahana Beach on Maui), according to the Inter-
national Shark Attack File, Florida Museum of
Natural History, University of Florida. About 7.4
million visitors come to the Islands each year.
The Big Pelgics of Hawaii: Furious and Fearsome On any given day, there are thousands of peo-

ple swimming in Hawaii’s ocean. Compared to
There are about forty species of shark in Hawaii, of which eight the many people in the water, the rate of shark
can be observed near shore. attacks in Hawaii at about three per year is low.
Of the shark attacks that do occur, most are
he chances of being attacked by a shark in Hawaii are very low. In fact, most water-related
not fatal. To see a map of Hawaii’s unprovoked
Tdeaths in Hawaiian waters are not due to shark attacks, but due to drowning. On average,
shark attacks that have occurred between the
60 people die each year by drowning in Hawaii, according to the State of Hawaii Department of
years 1828 to 2009.
Health Injury Prevention and Control Program. By comparison, in 2007, there were eight shark at-
tacks in Hawaii; in 2008, there were two attacks and in 2009, there were three attacks.