Eel Bites Tourist Vacationing in Hawaii: ‘There Was Blood Everywhere’

A tourist was reportedly bitten by a giant eel while vacationing in Hawaii, she told local news outlets. (Mstroeck at the English language Wikipedia viaCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

A tourist was reportedly bitten by a giant eel while vacationing in Hawaii, she told local news outlets.

“I knew immediately that it was something bad, and it wasn’t just like a fish nibble, so I pulled my foot into the air and there was blood everywhere,” Porter, of Maryland, told KHON-TV on Aug. 2. “My feet were dangling down and I was there for hours, so I was completely surprised that all of a sudden something attacked my foot,” she added.

Porter limped to the shore to look at the wound, and a lifeguard told her that it seemed to be consistent with an eel bite.

The International Shark File in Florida confirmed to KHON-TV that it wasn’t a shark bite, but it was probably caused by an eel.

Waikiki Aquarium director Andrew Rossiter, meanwhile, said that if it is indeed an eel bite, it’s quite unusual.

“I think the beach she was at, I don’t think there’s big rocky areas over there, so it’s very unusual, very mysterious,” he said.

Rossiter suspects that it was a moray eel.

“How fast are they? Just like that,” he added, snapping his fingers to describe the eel. “[They’re] incredibly rapid and even a diver will tell you to stay away from them in the water because they can come out and ping you in the blink of an eye.”

According to the FishBase website, there are approximately 200 species of moray eel.