Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources enforcement officers patrol off Kailua Beach for sharks a day after an attack at Bellows Beach. Richard Ambo/The Honolulu Advertiser   A sign warns beachgoers at Kailua Beach as a Honolulu Fire Department helicopter flies overhead, searching for sharks. Richard Ambo/The Honolulu Advertiser

Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city's emergency services department, said personnel will still recommend that beachgoers stay out of the water, but the beaches are open.

Warnings signs also will remain up at beaches, Cheplic said.

"We're going to keep the signs up and warn people not to get in the water," Cheplic said.

A Honolulu fire department helicopter will make one final flyover of beaches about 1:30 p.m. to look for sharks, he said.

He also advised beachgoers to be especially watchful, and to alert a lifeguard immediately if they see anything that might be a shark. People at beaches without a lifeguard should call 911 to report a possible shark, he said.

"People need to be very specific about what they see" when reporting a possible shark sighting, he said.

Earlier today, officials found no signs of a shark along Windward beaches after a shark attack yesterday at Bellows Beach.

Lifeguards on personal watercraft, spotters in the Honolulu Fire Department's helicopter and state Department of Land and Natural Resources officers in boats searched Windward waters this morning and asked people to stay on shore after a Mainland man was attacked in the leg while snorkeling off the military-only side of Bellows Beach yesterday.

Although state and city officials have no authority to ban people from the ocean, no swimmers entered the water this morning from Kailua to Waimanalo, Cheplic said.

"Everybody's pretty cooperative," he said.

Yesterday, beachgoers also reported seeing a shark attack at least two sea turtles off Bellows and Lanikai around the same time the man was bitten.

The victim, Harvey Miller, is a 36-year-old visitor from the Mainland who was taken to The Queen's Medical Center in serious but stable condition with a severe bite wound to his left leg below the knee, Cheplic said. He punched the shark in the nose to get away.

Witnesses described the shark as an 8-foot tiger shark, but authorities at the scene said that had not been confirmed.

It was the first reported shark attack off O'ahu in 16 months. On March 23, 2006, a Vancouver, B.C., woman survived a shark bite to her left calf while surfing at Left Overs, a surf spot a mile south of Waimea Bay.