“It’s very much a fluid situation,” Dan Dennison, spokesperson for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said during a news conference on Thursday afternoon. “We’re all obviously hoping for a good outcome. The search has been going for almost five hours now. So they’ll continue in earnest until … another hour, hour and a half or so, and then as I said, they’ll reassess where we go from there.”

Dennison said that just before noon on Thursday, a man called 911 to report that he’d seen a shark swim by repeatedly while he was snorkeling about 50 yards off Keawakapu. The man returned to shore after looking for his wife, Dennison said.

The Maui Fire Department and Ocean Safety personnel conducted an “extensive” search with Jet Skis, divers and a rescue boat, while the department’s Air One helicopter and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft assisted from above.

The Coast Guard deployed a C-130 and MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Barbers Point, as well as a 45-foot response boat from the Maui station, Coast Guard public affairs specialist Ryan Fisher said Thursday evening.

State DLNR officer Matt Pauole fields questions about Thursday afternoon’s beach closure at Keawakapu.

Fisher said the Coast Guard received a report that the husband and wife were snorkeling when the husband saw a shark and tried to fight it off. He quickly swam to shore and called 911 when he didn’t see his wife. Fisher said the Coast Guard did not have additional information about what may have happened to the wife, but that she was last seen wearing a blue bathing suit.

Typically in shark incidents, authorities don’t release information until all the facts are known.

“However, in this case, an ongoing search for a person who possibly encountered a shark earlier today caused us to set aside the normal operating procedure,” Dennison said.

Dennison said authorities are characterizing the event as “a possible shark-human encounter,” but that they could not provide any details about the possible victims, their ages, genders or hometowns. The missing person was last seen just before noon, Dennison said.

He said no one had seen the shark since it was first reported and did not have information about the shark’s size.

When asked if emergency responders may expand or shift the search based on where the currents might take a person, Dennison said, “I haven’t heard anything about that.”

“All we know is they’re going to continue the search until nightfall and then I think they’ll reassess at that point in time and see what they may do tomorrow,” he said.

Shark warning signs have been posted from Mana Kai condos to the north end of Wailea Beach and will remain in place until at least noon today after the all-clear has been issued, according to officials.

Fall and early winter tend to be the most common times for shark and human encounters in Hawaii, with most incidents from 1980 to 2021 occurring in October and November, according to DLNR records.

Maui tends to see the most shark incidents (61 since 1995, the most of any other island), though the island had accounted for only one of the six incidents in the state so far this year. Hawaii island has seen the most incidents with three; Oahu and Kauai have seen one apiece.

The other shark incident on Maui this year involved a snorkeler who lost an arm and suffered puncture wounds to the torso in turbid waters at Paia Bay.

Dennison reminded beachgoers not to enter the water if it’s murky and to not go in after dark or before sunrise. Always swim, snorkel or do other types of recreation in the ocean with a companion, he added.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.