Shark clamps onto Hawaii surfer's hand in attack
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — A Hawaii woman escaped a tiger shark attack with only some injuries to her fingers and hand after her friend punched the animal until it relented.
McKenzie Clark, a surfer, left the hospital last week after getting 20 stitches on her left hand, middle finger and ring finger. The ring finger, scraped to the bone, will require a skin graft.
"Its intent was to eat my friend right in front of me, and I wasn't going to let that happen," Brian Wargo said of Friday's attack.
Clark was paddling her surfboard in murky waters in the Big Island's Keawaeli Bay when the shark emerged, she told West Hawaii Today (http://ow.ly/DKtln ).
Wargo saw Clark and her board on top of the shark's back. He told The Associated Press on Monday that he had expected the attack to be over by the time he reached her.
"When I paddled out to go to her, I wasn't thinking I was going to get into a battle with a shark," he said.
The shark clamped onto Clark's hand and board. She was able to free her hand and rolled off the board, but the shark kept the board between its teeth, towing Clark by the leash that attaches to a surfer's ankle.
Wargo grabbed the dorsal fin with both hands, pulled the shark off the board and started punching it between the gills and dorsal fin.
"I hit it probably four times and it just kept going at her," he said. "I hit it as hard as I could. I thought my hand was going to break."
He said he could tell his final hit landed when the shark shuddered. Wargo, the captain of Bite Me sport fishing charters, said he suspects it was a 12- to 15-foot tiger shark that attacked.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources closed the beach after the attack.
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Information from: West Hawaii Today, http://www.westhawaiitoday.com
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