A Maui father-and-son survived a harrowing encounter with a large shark Tuesday as they kayaked together off the island’s west side.
Daniel and Tristan Sullivan were searching for whales when the shark – possibly a great white shark – bit and thrashed their kayak, spilling them into the water.
“When its mouth rose up and bit into the kayak, it was like a scene out of a movie,” Daniel Sullivan, the father, told Hawaii News Now. “The water streaming off of it, these giant teeth coming right at us, and then the way it just pushed the entire boat up halfway and pulled us back down into the water.”
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Both kayakers swam toward shore for about 35 minutes as the shark continued to bite their kayak. The paddlers were not injured.
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Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources issued a statement regarding the incident:
“Just before 2 p.m., a father and son reported to the Maui Dispatch Center that they were kayaking in the 1000 Peaks area (Ukumehame), when a shark attacked their boat. They fell overboard when the kayak sank, and they were able to safely swim to shore.
“They reported the shark as a ten-foot tiger shark. Personnel from DAR and DOCARE officers are now attempting to get more information from the pair.”
Tiger sharks are most often implicated in attacks on humans and/or their kayaks and surfboards in Hawaiian waters. However, the Sullivans said this shark’s snout was pointier than the more rounded snouts of tiger sharks.
Great white sharks are rare in Hawaii, but adult white sharks from the U.S. and Mexico migrate as far west as Hawaii during the fall and winter. Bite marks visible on the bottom of the kayak appear to be from a large shark.
Tristan Sullivan, 15, described the encounter via Instagram:
“Today my dad and I were out kayaking when a massive shark bit our kayak and flipped us into the water we tried to get back into it but it was taking on water fast and we kept falling back into the water. At the time we were about a mile out and eventually we had to leave our kayak and start swimming in knowing the whole time the shark could be right behind us thankfully we made it back safe.”
The DNLR closed beaches in the area and they were set to reopen Wednesday at noon.
–Image showing bite marks on the kayak is courtesy of Tristan Sullivan