Woman injured in shark attack in Hawaii

A 25-year-old woman is in serious condition after a shark attack off the coast of Hawaii on Friday.

According to Sunny Johnson, a paramedic with Honolulu Emergency Medical Services, the incident occurred on the north shore of Oahu in the Haleiwa area.

Johnson said paramedics were called to the incident around 2 p.m. and treated the woman, who suffered numerous injuries and was taken to a trauma hospital in serious condition.

Authorities have not released further details about the victim’s injuries or the type of shark that attacked him.

Newsweek contacted Honolulu Emergency Services by phone and email at 4:30 a.m. HST on Saturday. This article will be updated if they decide to comment.

In another incident on Friday, beaches on the Florida Panhandle in Walton County were temporarily closed after two shark attacks.

According to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, they and the South Walton Fire District “responded to a report of a woman injured by a shark in the water near Watersound Way and Coopersmith Lane” just after 1:15 a.m.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment and the sea was closed to the public “in the local incident area”.

Shortly thereafter, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office announced that this was a “second shark incident in Inlet Beach” after receiving “multiple reports of a teenager injured by a shark.”

The response was: “Water is now closed to the public in Walton County.”

During a press conference, Ryan Crawford, chief of the South Walton Fire District, said the “highly unusual” attacks occurred “in relative proximity” to each other and resulted in “devastating injuries.”

He said the first victim was a 45-year-old woman who was in critical condition and suffered “significant injuries” to her midsection; her left forearm had to be amputated.

In the second case, Crawford reported that two teenage girls were attacked in waist-deep water. One of the girls suffered “significant” injuries and is in critical condition, while the other is reported as stable and has lacerations.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment further when asked for comment by Newsweek.

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, there were 69 “unprovoked” shark attacks on humans worldwide in 2023, plus 22 classified as “provoked.” These resulted in 14 deaths, ten of which occurred in “unprovoked incidents.”

The Florida Museum of Natural History stated: “Consistent with long-term trends, the United States recorded the most unprovoked shark bites in 2023, with 36 confirmed cases. This is slightly less than the 41 incidents recorded in 2022. The 36 cases represent 52 percent of the global total.”

Sixteen of the attacks in the United States occurred off the coast of Florida, representing 44 percent of the American total and 23 percent of the global total.

No fatal shark attacks have been recorded off the coast of the United States this year. However, two attacks with non-life-threatening injuries have been recorded off the coast of California and South Carolina.