Surfer Is Killed in Shark Attack Off Maui

A surfer was killed Wednesday morning in a shark attack off western Maui, the first confirmed fatal attack in Hawaii in nearly 12 years, police said.

Willis McInnis, 57, was helped out of the water, but died on the shore despite rescue efforts by beachgoers, police and paramedics.

He was bitten in the leg and suffered severe blood loss, police Capt. Charles Hirata said.

He said the bite on McInnis was 12 to 14 inches wide, indicating that it was probably a large shark. McInnis was attacked about 300 yards off Kahana beach on Maui’s western shoreline.

“There was substantial arterial damage and a lot of blood loss,” Hirata said.

One witness told police the surfer missed catching a wave, turned back out and was paddling when the attack occurred.

State officials and lifeguards closed Kahana beach and posted shark warning signs along two miles of the coast.

Surf was reported to be about 4 feet high off Kahana, a popular local surfing spot.

There were four shark attacks reported in Hawaii last year, including an Oct. 31 incident off the North Shore of Kauai in which then-13-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm.

In 1999, the husband of Nahid Davoodabadi, 29, of Sunnyvale, Calif., said his wife was killed by a shark while the couple was kayaking in the waters off West Maui. Her body was never recovered.

The last confirmed shark attack death in Hawaii was in 1992 when 18-year-old surfer Aaron Romento of Pearl City was attacked off West Oahu. In 1991, a woman swimming near her Maui home was killed by a 15-foot shark.

Randy Honebrink, spokesman for the Shark Task Force of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said there are an average of about four shark attacks off the Hawaiian Islands every year.

He said tiger sharks are the most common in Hawaii.

“They do feed on an awful lot at things at the surface,” Honebrink said. “They have a nonspecific diet, they’ll eat just about anything.”