Hawaii Studying Tiger Shark Hunt in Wake of Attacks : Tourist industry fears travelers will stay away if the predators are not controlled. But some others oppose killing them.

Late last year, Martha Morrell was snorkeling with a friend in the tranquil waters near her Maui home when a 15-foot tiger shark slammed into her. A few horrible moments later, she was dead, her legs and right arm severed from her body.

In February, a surfer disappeared near Waimea Bay after a shark was spotted in the area. Only his bodyboard, sliced by a shark’s jaws, was recovered.

Just weeks ago, a Kauai surfer was knocked off her board when a shark took a swipe at it. She and a friend escaped.

In a state known for the allure of its beaches, alarmed residents are reporting more shark sightings. Fearful that the number of tiger sharks in Hawaii has reached dangerous levels, legislators late last month set aside $150,000 for a “shark population control program.”

“Sharks have no natural enemies at that size (15 feet), so they continue to get more bold,” said Rep. Joe Souki, who introduced the bill to fund a state-sponsored hunt.

Although the incidents occurred in relatively remote areas and when few people were in the water, they sent chills through the tourist industry, Hawaii’s economic mainstay.

“Had (the attacks) happened to visitors, it would be making front-page news in every newspaper in the U.S. and Japan,” warned Lynn Britton, president of the Maui Hotel Assn., testifying in the bill’s favor.

A list maintained by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows 15 confirmed shark attacks in the past decade in Hawaii, up from 10 in the previous decade. Most involved surfers and swimmers whose legs or arms were bitten. Morrell’s death was the first confirmed fatality since 1958, when a teen-age surfer was killed by a shark near Lanikai, a chic residential area on Oahu.

Observers caution that the apparent 50% rise in attacks may be because of better reporting, and they note that the number of attacks is small compared to the overall population. Roughly 1 million people live in Hawaii and nearly 7 million tourists visited last year.

But the drama of the attacks can inflate the danger in the public mind.

“I would say the threat is extremely minimal,” said John Naughton, a marine biologist and member of a new state task force on sharks. “Our waters are still very safe . . . . It’s just that, when you do have these attacks, they’re so dramatic and sensational.”

After Morrell was attacked, 100 yards from shore at Olowalu, the state hired a fisherman to trap tiger sharks in the area, but the hunt was called off after outcries from environmentalists and from native Hawaiians who claimed a spiritual connection to sharks.

“It’s not the sharks’ fault. They were there before us,” said Beatrice Ellorda, who is part-Hawaiian and whose family considers the shark its “aumakua,” or personal god. “That’s their domain; it’s their territory. Why pick on them? . . . We think of them as family.”

Tiger sharks--considered the most treacherous predators in the ocean, next to the great white shark, which is seldom encountered here--are at the top of the food chain and play an important role in the marine ecosystem. If they are removed, the balance of other species is inescapably affected.

After the fatal attack in 1958, such concerns were given little weight. The state launched hunts, slaughtering 700 sharks from 1959 to 1960, another 1,700 from 1967 to 1969, and 260 in 1971. The bill introduced this year called for a “tiger shark eradication program,” but after a public hearing, the language was toned down to “shark population control program.”

Michael T. Oakland, who witnessed the 1958 attack, is among surfers calling for a vigorous hunt. “Sharks are not porpoises, dolphins, whales or other creatures that need our help,” he argues. “They will always be with us. They are survivors. A measured hunt is a must at the very minimum.”

But scientists fear that not enough is known about tiger sharks and their habits to allow for effective control of the hunt. They say the state should have funded research to determine if the sharks patrol regular areas and if removing some would make sense.

A state shark task force is considering several options, including selective fishing right after attacks or when large sharks are spotted at popular beaches.

Experts advise swimmers to avoid the ocean from dusk through dawn, when tiger sharks cruise closer to shore, not to wander into isolated areas and to stay out of turbid, murky water or stream mouths, where the creatures may feed.