Maui shark-attack site OLOWALU, Maui >> State aquatic resources officials today will recommend that permanent signs be placed along a popular snorkeling area in West Maui, notifying ocean users that there have been shark attacks in recent history.
may post fixed alerts
Shark-sighted signs are usually
posted for 24 hours after attacksBy Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comThe posting of these permanent signs at Olowalu, if approved by the state, would be the first in the state.
As a policy, state aquatic officials post "shark sighted" signs for at least 24 hours in the vicinity of an area where there has been a shark attack. The signs are later removed if authorities see no sharks after checking the area from an airplane or boat.
State Land Board members are scheduled at 4 p.m. today to receive a briefing about the proposal in their boardroom at the Kalanimoku Building in Honolulu.
William Devick, head of the state Aquatic Resources Division, said signs used in Australia, California and Florida will be displayed at the briefing.
"We will get some direction from the board as to how to proceed ... but we're suggesting some kind of advisory should be put up in the area," he said.
Land board chairman Gil Agaran said he plans to move forward with posting the signs, unless there are objections at today's board meeting.
"The purpose of the signs is safety and information," he said.
The signs would warn ocean users about previous shark attacks but would not prohibit people from entering the water.
Devick said that because there have been three people bitten by sharks in the Olowalu area, there may be a problem in that coastal region.
Officials do not have any scientifically based information on why sharks gather in the area, but native Hawaiian kupuna have said sharks are known to breed there.
Also, state officials have noted there are a lot of fish and turtles at Olowalu that attract sharks.
He said state officials are also looking at how to keep the signs posted in the area without them being stolen.
In the past, "shark sighted" signs have been stolen sometimes within hours of being posted on the beach, enforcement officials note.
The Olowalu area has been the site of three shark attacks in the last 11 years.
Maui resident Marti Morrell was killed by a shark in 1991 as she was swimming near her beachfront home.
Henrietta Musselwhite, 56, of Geyserville, Calif., suffered two large lacerations on her back and puncture wounds to a thigh on Oct. 18, 2000, when a shark attacked her in 30 feet of water about a half-mile offshore.
Most recently, Los Angeles resident Tommy Holmes, a 35-year-old recording artist, suffered cuts to his right buttock and both thighs on New Year's Day from a shark bite about 100 yards offshore.
Holmes and his girlfriend, Monica Boggs, who were snorkeling, said they were happy the state was moving forward with posting the warning signs.
"That's really great news," Holmes said.
Holmes said he learned after the attack that many local residents knew sharks frequented the area.
"It was the tourists that didn't know," he said.
Randy Awo, state aquatic enforcement chief on Maui, said sharks are known to congregate in the Olowalu area and that while flying in an airplane, he has seen as many as 20 to 30 sharks in waters off Olowalu.
At least a couple of charter boat operators who sometimes use the area for their snorkeling cruises said they think the posting of permanent warning signs would unfairly label Olowalu as dangerous.