Surfer dies following shark attack off the coast of Maui in Hawaii

A surfer died after an incident with a shark off the coast of Paia on the island of Maui in Hawaii over the weekend, local authorities said.

Although they haven’t labeled it an attack, Maui County officials said in a Facebook post that the shark encountered Jason Carter, 39, of the Maui town of Haiku at about 11:12 a.m. local time on Saturday. Mr. Carter was brought back to shore via Jet Ski and taken to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

In general, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources defines an attack as multiple bites from a shark and says the chances of being bitten by a shark in Hawaii are less than one in a million.

Maui County officials did not specify the nature of Mr. Carter’s injuries or which type of shark was involved.

Mr. Carter was surfing when he encountered the shark, the DLNR said in a Facebook post, with “mixed” water conditions due to high surf.

A witness to the incident claimed a tiger shark was responsible, and said he could not see his own feet under the water at the time.

“It was murky, like really murky and I was kind of nervous … I couldn’t see my feet. … The shark just came up next to him and there’s maybe one guy in between us and the shark just started biting him and pulling him down and then I just was paddling in trying to call 911,” Ikaia Kapisi told KHNL-TV.

Before Saturday’s incident, there had been seven shark encounters in Hawaii’s waters in 2023, none of which were fatal, according to a DLNR shark incident database.