Cookiecutter Shark Attack
…Mike Spalding of Kula was attempting to become the third person known to cross the dangerous 30-mile Alenuihaha Channel when an undersea animal attacked him Monday night.
Spalding had already been swimming for four hours and 11 miles when the animal inflicted a superficial wound on his chest and then bit him in the calf a few seconds later, leaving a circular wound 3 inches in diameter and about 1 inch deep…
Cookie-cutter sharks grow up to 20 inches long and have razorlike teeth — a tiny set along its upper jaw and large, jagged teeth on its lower jaw, Naughton said.
They’re known as “sort of a mosquito of the sea” that live deeper than 1,000 feet during the day and cruise to the surface at night, Naughton said. They normally take bites out of open-ocean fish like ahi, mahimahi, Hawaiian monk seals, dolphins or whales…
…The only other incident Naughton knew of was in July 1992, when a drowned man had the distinctive, circular wounds of the cookie-cutter shark on his back…
Source: damontucker
