Tiger sharks kill baby humpback

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

KA'ANAPALI, Maui — Tourists and others watched from shore as a newborn humpback whale was attacked by sharks yesterday off the Ka'anapali resort.

The presence of the sharks caused officials to close a

two-mile stretch of shoreline from Black Rock to Mala Wharf. A decision on whether to reopen the area is expected this morning.

Tourists first noticed the abandoned whale calf circling in front of the Hyatt Regency Maui at about 6:45 a.m.

Marc Owens-Kurtz, a visitor from Minnesota, said a tiger shark took a bite out of its tail but the whale continued to flounder and came as close as 20 feet to shore.

"It was sad to see," he said. "It was struggling. You could tell something was wrong."

State and federal marine officials arrived on the scene at 7:30 a.m. They said the 10- to 12-foot calf appeared to be a newborn, weighing about 2,000 pounds.

David Mattila, search-and-rescue coordinator with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, said the whale, bleeding and missing a pectoral fin, was being followed by a tiger shark larger than the calf.

At 9:30 a.m., a group of tiger sharks pulled the whale under the water and it did not resurface. It remained on the ocean floor about 700 yards offshore in 90 feet of water while the sharks continued to feed.

Parts of the whale carcass drifted toward shore and samples were taken for DNA analysis. Mattila said he didn't believe the whale that died yesterday was the ailing calf spotted by researchers off Olowalu last week.

Hawai'i is the winter breeding and calving grounds for the North Pacific's humpback whales. Scientists estimate that an average of three whale calves a year have been abandoned by their mothers over the last five years in Hawai'i. With an increase in whale births, more calves may be dying of disease or from abandonment.

"It's part of the great circle of life,'' said Jeff Walters, the whale sanctuary's state co-manager. "The increase in baby whale fatalities could be happening for a number of reasons. The fact is that this occurs among all wild mammals."

A Maui Fire Department helicopter scanned the ocean for lingering sharks yesterday while marine officials patrolled near-shore waters in the afternoon.

"Our concern is not only for the baby whales, but also for unwary people who might swim where the whales and sharks are," Waters said. "... It is not safe to go between a shark and its lunch."