Despite efforts of fellow surfers and paramedics to save him, Willis McInnis died at the scene, becoming the first confirmed shark attack fatality in Hawaii in nearly 12 years.
State officials and Maui County lifeguards posted shark warning signs and closed a 2-mile stretch of beach from Honokowai Park to Little Makaha near Napili Bay. Lifeguards on personal watercraft patrolled the ocean Wednesday but didn't see any sharks, said Archie Kalepa, Maui County ocean safety supervisor.
Coombs, a 60-year-old retiree from Lahaina, said he had been paddling out in a channel to waves that were waist-to-shoulder-high when he saw a friend he knew as "Will" was in distress. "I heard him yelling, 'Help! Help me!' " said Coombs. He estimated he was about 100 yards away from the victim, who was lying on top of his 10-foot surfboard about 200 to 300 yards offshore in water 10 to 15 feet deep. Coombs paddled over to him and asked, "Will, what's wrong?" "He didn't answer me," he said. But Coombs said he could see a "big chunk had been taken out of the right back thigh . . . just below the buttocks." He also could see McInnis was losing massive amounts of blood.
Police said McInnis suffered severe lacerations to his upper right thigh and midcalf. The wound measured 12 to 14 inches long.
Coombs said he didn't see the shark and didn't know its size or species. He said he got off his board and began pushing McInnis in to shore while Cooper paddled in to use her cell phone to call for help. He said McInnis was approximately 6 feet tall and weighed about 175 pounds. "He said, 'My leg is toast,' " Coombs recalled. But he said he kept trying to give the man encouragement as it took another 10 to 15 minutes to get him in to shore. He said McInnis was conscious most of the way to shore, although he clearly was in, or going into, shock.
Bystanders and friends helped bring McInnis to shore and give him medical treatment.
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. Tiger sharks are the most common in Hawaii, he said. "They do feed an awful lot at things at the surface," Honebrink said. "They have a nonspecific diet. They'll eat just about anything." It was not immediately known how large the shark involved in the attack was, but wildlife authorities will try to estimate that by the bite marks, which were estimated to be as long as 14 inches across. "It has to be a fairly good size shark to do that damage," Honebrink said.
Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr., a Native Hawaiian member of the Hawaii state Shark Task Force, went out to Pohaku Park to survey what had happened. Maxwell, who headed the successful effort to not have sharks killed said: "I'm happy they are not going to kill the shark." Maxwell said the water looked murky and that was probably what contributed to the attack. He said the shark will bite once if it realizes it was not a seal or turtle, which is what it usually preys on. In this case, the victim was bitten once.
There were four shark attacks reported in Hawaii in 2003, including an Oct. 31 incident off the north shore of Kauai in which then 13-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm.
The last confirmed shark attack death in Hawaii was in 1992 when 18-year-old surfer Aaron Romento of Pearl City was attacked off Oahu.
On Nov. 26, 1991, Martha Joy Morrell, 41, was killed by what was reported to be a 15-foot shark while she was swimming with a friend in the ocean fronting her Olowalu home.
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The autopsy indicated the shark that attacked a Napili man surfing off Pohaku Park at Kahana took two bites out of the victim's right leg, with the second bite severing a main artery that caused the man's death from loss of blood, an autopsy found.
Willis "Will" McInnis also had injuries to his right thumb and pinkie that indicated he could have tried to hit the shark with his right hand, perhaps after being bitten, said Dr. Anthony Manoukian, Maui County coroner's physician. He said there were tooth marks and cuts on the victim's hand.
Manoukian said McInnis' right leg was bitten twice - once when the leg was grabbed by the shark and forced further into the creature's mouth, and again when the shark bit through the man's mid-thigh, severing the femoral artery. He said two bite wounds, including one on the mid-leg near the calf, were superimposed, measuring 13 1/2 inches in diameter. Both bites "left tooth marks on the bone," Manoukian said.
Manoukian said the victim appeared to have been bitten while his leg was vertical in the water, possibly while he was trying to get on the surfboard or had the leg dangling in the water.