Anglers hook large tiger shark near Hanalei surf break
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Anglers, concerned about a giant shark that has returned repeatedly to the surf breaks in Hanalei Bay, set hooks this week, and Thursday morning they caught a massive tiger shark.
Fisherman Ralph Young said he couldn't be sure it's the same one that bit off Bethany Hamilton's arm two weeks ago at Tunnels, roughly four miles from where the shark was caught.
But it's the right size.
Randy Honebrink, spokesman for the state Shark Task Force, estimated from the 17-inch-wide bite in Bethany Hamilton's surfboard that she was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark. Young said his shark measured 13 feet, 6 inches, and had a jaw 17 inches wide.
The Shark Task Force has argued against shark hunting after attacks on humans, saying such efforts have little likelihood of getting the attacker and can cause imbalances in the marine environment.
Bethany Hamilton's father, Tom, said he had not discussed hunting sharks with his daughter, but that he and his wife and two sons were not in favor of a full-scale shark hunt. But he would be pleased, he said, if someone caught the shark that injured Bethany.
Young, 60, said surfers in Hanalei were getting frightened by a very large shark that appeared in the late afternoon several days in a row, cruising along the edge of the reef where surfers wait on their boards.
Young said he was going after only the one big shark, not conducting a wider hunt. He worked on setting the big-shark gear with fellow North Shore residents Bruce Chapin and Bill Hamilton, who is not related to Bethany Hamilton's family.
Young said they used for bait a 6-foot gray reef shark caught with a rod and reel. It was affixed to two large hooks on quarter-inch steel cable. The anglers rigged the hooked shark carcass to a boat mooring near the surf break in Hanalei Bay, using large plastic buoys to keep the gear off the bottom. The rig was up for four nights.
On Thursday morning, Young found a dead shark nearly as long as his 14-foot skiff. He took it ashore for photographs and then took it far out to sea, where the currents would take it away from land.
Young said he removed belly skin to be used by a Hawaiian cultural practitioner for a drum head, and removed the shark's jaws.
He believes the shark is the same one that was cruising the surf zone, "because of the description people gave of the shape of the dorsal fin. It was ragged looking, with notches out of it," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
