Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
January 31, 2003
Hanauma Bay is one of the best marine parks in the world, but things there aren’t always as simple as they seem.
Recently, an underwater photographer told me that two whitetip reef sharks had taken up residence inside the reef at Hanauma Bay. I couldn’t find them on my own, but a friendly park worker offered to show me. He led me to the spot, dived down and pointed under a narrow rock ledge. And sure enough, there, beneath countless snorkelers, lay two well-hidden whitetip reef sharks, snoozing in the sand.
I know this is unwelcome news to people who worry about sharks, but it shouldn’t be. There are things to worry about at Hanauma Bay, but running into a shark is not one of them.
Whitetip reef sharks, which reach nearly 6 feet long, are the only sharks people see regularly on Hawaii’s reefs. Still, spotting one is tough.
When we do see these sharks, it’s usually during the day when they’re resting in a cave or under a ledge. Sometimes one or more will stay in that same spot for long periods of time.
At night, whitetips wake up and search for octopuses, crustaceans and fish among rocks and around coral heads. But even though these sharks are good hunters, it’s always easier to steal fish that someone else catches. Whitetip reef sharks are known to follow spear-fishing divers and, at the first opportunity, snatch their catch.
This species of shark is not interested in eating people and never attacks unprovoked. But that doesn’t mean you can pet them or tease them. If cornered or startled, sharks have nothing to lose by striking.
One “Ocean Watch” reader, Jack, recently e-mailed me a good story about a whitetip reef shark at Hanauma Bay. Just outside the reef, near the cable channel, Jack saw a scuba-diving photographer peering into a puka in the reef. After she left, he dived down the 15 feet and looked in the same hole.
“A 60-foot (well, maybe 6-foot) long whitetip sauntered out under my nose, filling the viewing field of my mask. … I got the message and back-pedaled up the reef wall, followed (by the shark) all the way,” he wrote. “My guess is that it was annoyed by the flash bulbs interrupting some dream.”
The shark took off, and Jack considered the experience a good one. After maybe a thousand snorkel trips and dozens of dives, he had seen a shark only once previously.
This avid waterman does not fear sharks, but he is wary of another potential threat at Hanauma Bay: drowning. Last year, 12 people drowned at the bay.
Jack wrote that once last year, he, like me, had a sobering experience getting back inside the reef through the cable channel.
The water was rough that day, but from the beach, Jack saw eight young women steam out through the channel without fins, frolic around, then steam back in with ease against the current.
So he went out, too — and barely made it back. After tumbling in over the reef on a wave, he stumbled to the lifeguard tower to report the exceptionally strong current. “We know,” one guard said. “We were watching you and you handled it right.”
The lifeguards also informed Jack that those eight women were members of UCLA’s water polo team.
On some days at Hanauma Bay, it’s far more dangerous to swim out the channel than to swim with a shark. It doesn’t seem right but that’s nature for you. It’s anything but simple.