GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
San Diego visitor Julie Glance spoke during a news conference yesterday at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
Maui shark victim WAILUKU >> California visitor Julie Glance said she would not have gone into the water if she had been told about recent shark attacks on Maui, especially one that took place last month.
laments the lack
of attack warnings
The woman visitor says danger signs
6 shark attacks this year fall within norm
would have kept her out of the water
By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comGlance, who was bitten by a shark off Kaanapali on Sunday, said she thought shark attacks were as rare as lightning strikes but now realizes they are more common here.
But she said she felt visitors should be made aware of the shark attacks, including an Oct. 30 attack off South Maui, in which a shark bit a woman's left foot.
Permanent shark warning signs are posted at Olowalu Beach on Maui, about 10 miles away, but none are posted at Kaanapali.
Asked if she would go back in the water, Glance, 34, the chief executive officer of the San Diego Grossmont Schools Federal Credit Union and an amateur triathlete, said: "In Hawaii, probably not. I'd definitely think about it before I go back in."
Glance said she was swimming about 150 yards from shore along the Kaanapali coastline when she felt something bump and cut into her right shoulder, then take a second bite and let go.
The shark attack took about five seconds and also severely cut her right hand near the wrist, severing an artery and most of her tendons -- injuries that required two hours of surgery by two physicians, her family said.
"Right now, I feel very happy because I didn't think I'd make it," said Glance, recuperating at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
She said the shark also took some bone out of her right shoulder.
"I'm lucky more nerves and arteries weren't severed," she said.
The attack took place at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday in waters off the Embassy Vacation Resorts Kaanapali, where she and her family had been staying since Friday night.
Glance said she got a look at the shark as it turned away from her.
She estimated the shark was 6 feet in length and described it as gray in color with a white tip on the tail.
State and county officials said a 5-foot, white-tip reef shark was seen swimming in the vicinity a few hours after the attack.
State and county officials closed a 2-mile stretch of beach from Black Rock to Honokowai Park from Sunday morning through noon yesterday.
The beach was reopened after officials saw no signs of sharks.
Hawaii Shark Task Force spokesman Randy Honebrink said yesterday that state and county water officers would monitor the area for another day.
Honebrink said authorities were still interviewing witnesses and had not made a determination about the size or type of shark involved in the attack.
Glance said while she was bleeding and trying to swim to shore Sunday morning, she thought about what might happen if she died and about her 2-year-old daughter and 5-month-old son. "They're my babies," she said.
She said her hand would require specialized surgery and rehabilitation.
Glance said physicians expected her to gain 85 percent to 95 percent use of her hand -- enough so she could continue to participate in triathlons -- which include running, cycling and swimming. She paused for a moment, then said she would have to think about the swimming part of the race.
Glance said her family and parents were visiting Maui and that she has been to the Valley Isle a couple of times.
She said she swam a little bit on Saturday in front of Embassy Vacation Resorts Kaanapali but did not go out as far as she did on Sunday.
Glance said she had not noticed anything out of the ordinary during the Sunday swim, but the water was not clear in some areas and she was unable to see the bottom.
Minnesota visitor Steve Bona said he was about 20 yards away from Glance.
He said he did not see the head of the shark but saw the gray body rise and dive into the water.
He said that after noticing Glance screaming for help, he moved toward her and gave her his bodyboard.
Bona said he put his arms around her to hold her to the board.
Using their fins, both of them kicked to shore.
Her husband, Robert W. Glance II, said the experience has not soured his family to visiting Maui, and the family plans to return to the islands.
He said the shark was doing what predators do in the ocean, and his wife conducted herself in a "very brave" manner.
"She kept her head and did what she needed to do. I'm very proud of her."
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WAILUKU >> Federal and state aquatic experts say the recent number of shark attacks on Maui and the rest of Hawaii are not above the normal count taken in the last 12 years. 6 shark attacks this year fall
within norm, experts sayBy Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comNational Marine Fisheries official Alan Everson said there also appears to be no pattern in the six attacks that have occurred in Hawaii this year, including the three on Maui.
"For me the numbers are up and down and look really random," said Everson.
Since 1990 the recorded number of shark attacks has ranged from one to six, with six occurring this year and also in 1999.
This year, the number includes three on Maui, two on Oahu and one on Kauai. The six attacks in 1999 included two on Maui, one on Kauai and three on the Big Island.
Hawaii Shark Task Force spokesman Randy Honebrink said while the six attacks represent the high side, the average number of shark attacks in Hawaii is about three to four a year, with some years recording just one.
"Some years there are more and some years there are less," Honebrink said. "You have to look at the big picture."
Honebrink said the attacks seem very random, varying in months and locations.
He said tiger sharks appear to attack people more frequently than other sharks, but the types of predator vary.
Honebrink said the shark that bit a woman's left foot as she swam in waters off South Maui on Oct. 30 probably was not a tiger shark.
Everson said there are precautions a swimmer can take before entering the water.
He said a person should try to swim with other people because shark attacks seem to take place quite often when a person is alone.
Everson said people should avoid swimming in murky water, especially after a rain -- a period when there seems to be more shark attacks -- because the sharks might mistake humans for turtles or other food.
"We think a lot of times it's a case of mistaken identity," he said.
County of Maui
