{"id":132828,"date":"2020-12-21T12:12:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T22:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=132828"},"modified":"2023-09-21T12:05:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T22:05:33","slug":"shark-fatality-dna-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/21\/shark-fatality-dna-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark that caused fatality identified through new <abbr>DNA<\/abbr> technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_52037\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sYfv_B2uwNQ?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Shark that caused fatality identified through new DNA technology\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>Using new <abbr>DNA<\/abbr> barcoding technology, a pair of shark researchers at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.himb.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology<\/a> (<abbr>HIMB<\/abbr>) have determined a tiger shark caused fatal injuries to a 56-year-old Lahaina man, who was bitten at Maui\u2019s Honolua Bay on December 8. By measuring bite marks on the surfer\u2019s board, they have also determined the shark was approximately 14.3-feet-long.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>HIMB<\/abbr>\u2019s Associate Researcher <strong>Carl Meyer<\/strong>, a renowned shark expert said, &ldquo;Prior to the development of these new techniques, uncertainty over the size and species of sharks responsible for bites to people was common. We are absolutely certain that it was a large tiger shark (in the 98th percentile for size), that bit this man.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 0 15px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-himb-shark-fatality-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"measuring bite out of surf board\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-132862\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-himb-shark-fatality-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-himb-shark-fatality-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-himb-shark-fatality.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"float:right;clear:right;margin:0 0 0 15px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-Honolua-Bay-Shark-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"shark swimming\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-132860\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-Honolua-Bay-Shark-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-Honolua-Bay-Shark-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-Honolua-Bay-Shark.jpg 677w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources (<abbr>DAR<\/abbr>) collaborated with <abbr>HIMB<\/abbr> to definitively identify the species and to calculate shark size from bite impressions.<\/p>\n<p>Using a &ldquo;swab kit&rdquo; developed by the <abbr>HIMB<\/abbr> researchers, Adam Wong, a Maui-based <abbr>DAR<\/abbr> education specialist, gathered trace samples of <abbr>DNA<\/abbr> from the bite impression left on the victim\u2019s board. Wong and other <abbr>DAR<\/abbr> staff who respond to shark encounters state-wide are provided with swab kits to help further the understanding of the species and sizes of sharks after encounters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Derek Kraft<\/strong>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Sea Grant<\/a> fellow working at <abbr>HIMB<\/abbr> said, &ldquo;Once we received the sample from Maui, we used these new techniques to determine the species and size of the shark involved in the recent Honolua incident. We\u2019re all extremely saddened by the loss of life. These new techniques can be applied in future incidents to help us gain a clearer understanding of these events\u2026which fortunately are quite rare.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The researchers are confident their method can recover shark <abbr>DNA<\/abbr> from anything that comes in direct contact with a shark, such as a surfboard or stand-up paddle board. They said the method works best if swab samples are taken within hours of an incident, but in this case were still able to recover usable <abbr>DNA<\/abbr> after two and a half days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><abbr>UH<\/abbr> shark researchers determined a tiger shark caused fatal injuries to a 56-year-old Lahaina man, who was bitten at Honolua Bay on December 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[53,1363,92,9,438,56],"class_list":["post-132828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-hawaii-institute-of-marine-biology","tag-manoa-research","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-sea-grant","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132828"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183913,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132828\/revisions\/183913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}