Authorities in Hawaii say a lady seemed to have been bitten by a shark on Saturday at a bay on Maui’s north coast. They are advising people to avoid the area’s waters.
The lady was rushed to a hospital to get treatment for a “severe bite,” according to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
According to a statement from the police, the victim was in serious condition when she was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center.
The lady was a 51-year-old foreign guest, according to police, who did not provide her identity to the authorities.
At Pia Bay, the event happened on a Saturday afternoon.
She was taken to the beach by bystanders until help arrived, according to HawaiiNewsNow.
Cinthia Pacheco, who was at a different beach nearby when the incident took place, told the station that “we had all the cops come, life guards, police department — urging that everyone stay out of the ocean.”
“I believe that I was pretty stunned at first and felt terrible for the individual.
Authorities posted banners alerting locals to avoid the water until at least Sunday lunchtime.
After a night of heavy rain, witnesses said the water was murky, increasing the danger of drowning for swimmers, according to HawaiiNewsNow.
In the wild, a predator often pounces on the first item it detects or notices that could be a prospective meal while in search of a meal.
Frequently, unintentional shark attacks are the result of mistaken identification, according to Michelle Benedict, the Sea Life Park Aquarist Supervisor, who spoke to the station.
According to research presented last year, human attacks by sharks often originate from misidentification.
According to the study, sharks have “considerably weaker” spatial resolution abilities than humans and, even if they are not fully colour blind, have restricted colour vision.
Therefore, researchers discovered, they mainly depend on motion and brightness contrast while searching for prey.
State records show that Hawaii has had at least two more shark attacks this year.