Shark stories are just plain scary. From Surfing Star Loses Arm in Shark Attack:
The water was clear and there was no indication of danger when a 13-year-old surfing star went out on the waves with her best friend and her friend’s father. But while Bethany Hamilton was lying on her board off Kauai’s North Shore, a shark bit once and then disappeared, taking off her left arm just below the shoulder.
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Bethany, of Princeville, was attacked in an area known as Tunnels, a quarter-mile off Makua Beach near Haena.Bethany was surfing with best friend Alana Blanchard, also 13, and Alana’s father, Holt Blanchard, her family said.
Holt Blanchard immediately applied a tourniquet to Hamilton’s arm using a surfboard leash, the family said.
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The shark took a chunk out of Bethany’s surfboard that measured about 16 inches across and 8 inches deep, penetrating nearly to the center of the board, which suggests the shark was 12 to 15 feet long, Kauai fire Battalion Chief Bob Kaden said. It may have been a tiger shark, said Randy Honebrink, spokesman for the state Shark Task Force.