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Beach reopens
today following
shark attack

The Kanaha Beach visitor's
condition has been upgraded
to guarded from critical

---

By Gary Kubota
Star-Bulletin

KANAHA, Maui -- Kanaha Beach Park was scheduled to reopen today for the first time since a shark attack Tuesday.

Water safety officials say they will be taking down what's left of the 20 shark-attack warning signs they posted Tuesday afternoon.

"More than half the signs were stolen," said water safety officer Joseph Perez.

Perez said he had no idea who might have taken the signs, but the absence of them made warning people to stay away from the ocean more difficult.

Jean Goenvec, 53, of France, whose left leg below the knee was bitten by the shark, has been upgraded to guarded condition from critical at Maui Memorial Medical Center after undergoing surgery, a medical center spokesperson said today.

By Gary T. Kubota, Star-Bulletin
Nathalia Genin talks to water safety officials about Maui's
Kanaha Beach being closed yesterday because
of a shark attack on Tuesday.

Goenvec was about three-fourths of a mile to a mile offshore, beyond the reef and in deep blue water, when he was retrieved from the ocean, Perez said.

Tuesday afternoon and yesterday, water safety officers used all-terrain vehicles and a jet ski to patrol a half-mile length of beach.

Perez said beach-goers were cooperative and officers only had to advise a few divers to get out of the water.

People visiting the beach were surprised that the shark attack took place in the middle of the day and in an area frequented by windsurfers.

"That's the scary part," said Maria Szczecina, a Colorado visitor. "It's not that far."

Jenn Yannella, a Maryland visitor, said the attack worried her because it occurred in the middle of the day and not in the late afternoon and early morning, when sharks are known to feed.

"This is kind of crazy," Yannella said.

Neither Yannella nor Szczecina was frightened enough from the shark attack to change their plans to go into the ocean in the next few days.

Nathalia Genin, a visitor, said her family scuba dives and occasionally sees sharks. But they don't think about the danger.

"You can be injured on a plane or on the road," Genin said.

State officials say there has been no determination as what kind of shark attacked Goenvec.

"We won't know until we have a chance to interview the victim, and even then, we may not know," said Russell Sparks, a state aquatics official. He said the state has no plans to conduct a shark hunt.

Sparks said that according to county officials who interviewed Goenvec, the shark was about 12 feet long. The shark appeared to have shredded part of his leg, rather than bitten off a portion of it, a medical technician said.