An 11-year-old girl reportedly experienced a potential shark bite off Honolulu, according to officials.
According to Shayne Enright from the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, Honolulu Ocean Safety, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, and the Honolulu Fire Department were called to the scene of a potential shark bite on Saturday afternoon, as reported by ABC News.
“The 911 call came in just before 1:30 p.m. for an 11-year-old girl who may have suffered a shark bite to her left foot at [a] spot known as Rainbows in Ka’a’awa (across from the back gate to Kualoa Ranch),” Enright said in her email.
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The child sustained injuries that were not life-threatening, and her parents chose not to have her taken to the emergency room by EMS.
“According to Enright, a witness reported spotting what seemed to be a small reef shark in the area,”
The girl “was close to shore when this occurred,” according to the report, Enright continued.
Honolulu Ocean Safety was in the process of placing warning signs in the vicinity.
2023: Shark Attacks Take Ten Lives, Exceed Average
In 2023, ten individuals lost their lives due to unprovoked shark attacks worldwide, slightly higher than the average of the past five years.
This information was provided by a database in Florida that monitors these uncommon occurrences.
Following an examination of 121 reported shark-human interactions globally last year, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File found 69 unprovoked shark bites, with the majority happening in the United States and Australia, as detailed in a recent publication on Monday.
The number aligns with the average of 63 incidents per year from 2018 to 2022, as stated in the report.
According to the report, there were twenty-two shark attacks last year that were found to be provoked either intentionally or unintentionally.
Out of those, there were four fatalities, as mentioned.
Instances of provoked bites happen when a person engages with a shark, like during spearfishing or trying to feed it, according to the report.
Attacks are considered unprovoked when they happen on live humans in the shark’s natural environment without any human provocation.
“As biologists, we are interested in understanding the natural behavior of these animals,” said Gavin Naylor, the director of the International Shark Attack File, in an interview with ABC News.
Do they tend to come closer to shore during a full moon? Does it have any connection to fish spawning?
According to the report, the global average for unprovoked fatalities over five years is six, while it was 10 in 2023.