A shark attack Wednesday off the shores of Maui left a 65-year-old female snorkeler dead.
Margaret C. Cruise, who lived in Kihei, Hawaii, was found floating face down in the water with
severe lacerations on her upper torso, Hawaii News Now reported.
Authorities told HNN that she had been snorkeling with two friends, but they somehow were separated.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources closed La Perouse Bay to Big Beach, Makena and Kihei. The areas will stay closed at least until Thursday afternoon, at which time authorities will reassess the situation.
Three fatal shark attacks have occurred near Makena, Hawaii, since 2013. In 2013, a fisherman dangling a leg overboard was bitten by a shark and died; that same year, another woman was killed while snorkeling.
Sightings in Southern California have prompted authorities to post warnings on some beaches there.
In Orange County, two sharks, about 5 to 6 feet and described as “juveniles,” were swmming near the surf line at a beach.
The Seal Beach Marine Safety Department posted a video submitted of one of the sharks swimming in close to the beach.
“Yes, sharks do live in the ocean,” one woman wrote on the post. But despite the acknowledged danger of swimming in the ocean, many have been concerned about spikes in shark attacks.
Discovery reported in February that while the number of shark attacks has risen in the past decade, fewer people are dying from those attacks.
In the U.S. in 2014, 28 shark attacks occurred in Florida, seven in Hawaii, five in South Carolina, four in North Carolina and California, and one each in Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
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