How to: Staunch a Shark Attack Wound!

Matt Meola responds to shark attack on Friday with a leash as a tourniquet. Effective!

Shark attacks on Maui ain’t exactly a hypothetical. Six attacks so far this year, and two this week. Late on Friday, a thirty-six-year-old surfer and pal of Maui jibber Matt Meola, Frederico H. Jaime, got hit by a five-foot shark at Hookipa Beach, bites to the arm and leg. Nasty as anything. Make the blood run cold, oowee don’t look at the photo etc.

Maui News reports,

At about 5 p.m., a surfer looked over after hearing a man scream and saw a 5-foot reef shark biting the surfer’s left arm, Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said Friday evening. The shark let go and then bit the man again in the left leg.

Other surfers came to the victim’s aid and helped paddle the man to shore. He was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in serious condition, said Taomoto, adding that the arm injury was the more serious injury.

Beaches were closed along a 2-mile stretch from Maliko Bay to Tavares Bay, Taomoto said. Firefighters and conservation officers from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement cleared the ocean of surfers at the beach park and will warn people against entering the water until an assessment is made this morning.

This is the sixth shark attack this year on Maui and the second in a week. A 66-year-old woman, a part-time Kihei resident from Washington state, was the apparent victim of a shark attack Oct. 14 off Charley Young Beach in Kihei. She suffered severe injuries to her lower left leg and was hospitalized.

The woman was swimming about 20 to 30 yards offshore between Charley Young Beach and Cove Park in about 7 feet of water at the time of the attack, according to fire officials. The ocean was calm but murky.

What’s interesting about this attack is how the surfers responded to the injuries. A leash is used as a tourniquet, while Matt Meola uses an iPhone to film the treatment. Modern, yes, but helpful as a training video on what to do if a pal gets hit.

Watch here!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL4ayQZFIVH/?taken-by=mattmeola