Peller Marion, 63, of Marin County, Calif., talks to reporters at Maui Memorial Medical Center today, a day after she was bitten on the right leg by a shark at Keawakapu Beach in Kihei. She is shown here pointing to the wound. CHRISTIE WILSON | Honolulu Advertiser

Marion, 63, was attacked by a shark yesterday morning while snorkeling at Keawakapu Beach in Kihei. She was about 25 yards from shore in 10 to 14 feet of water when the predator grabbed her from behind.

"I felt the strangest feeling. It felt like something had clenched on my foot, and the first thing I saw was my new flipper that I had just bought at Maui Dive Shop pop off my foot," Marion said.

She turned around and saw a "wall" of gray as the shark released its grip and turned to swim off, she said.

Marion, a consulting psychologist and author, said she managed to swim "lopsided" to shore and began screaming, "Shark, shark!"

"I got to the beach and was so grateful to have all of my body parts," she said.

Bystanders rendered first aid before an ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital.

Marion, a regular Maui visitor since 1993, said she wouldn't have gone swimming if she'd known about another shark incident that had occurred an hour earlier at Kamaole Beach Park II, less than two miles north of Keawakapu.

In that case, a man on a stand-up paddle board reported he had been stalked by a 14-foot tiger shark several hundred yards off shore.

It is not known if the same animal was responsible for both incidents.

A four-mile stretch of South Maui coastline from Kalama Park to the Grand Wailea Resort was reopened at 12:30 p.m. today after an aerial scan of coastal waters reported no shark sightings. The beaches were closed after the shark attack at Keawakapu.