What to know about Tamayo Perry, the actor and surfer who died in apparent shark attack

What happened?

Local authorities said that Perry was surfing at Malaekahana Beach lake, near an area known as Goat Island, on the northeast coast of the Oahu, and died Sunday afternoon in the attack.

Honolulu Ocean Safety and the city's fire, police and emergency medical services departments responded to the beach just before 1 p.m. after a caller reported seeing a man who appeared to have suffered "more than one shark bite," Shayne Enright of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department said Monday in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. Lifeguards brought Perry to shore by jet ski and paramedics assisted with the death pronouncement.

After the incident, Ocean Safety personnel posted shark warnings in the area, Enright said.

No official cause of death has yet been announced and it's unclear what type of shark attacked him.

How frequent are shark attacks in that area?

Perry's death is reported to be ninth fatal shark attack in Hawaii in the last 20 years, Honolulu News Now reported Monday. His is said to be the only death in that time that hasn't happened in waters off the island of Maui.

The actor's death was one of four shark incidents in Hawaii this year, according to the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources. Only about a dozen of more than 300 species of sharks have been involved in human attacks, the National Ocean Service said, and those attacks typically occur when the shark is confused or curious.

Although attacks are still statistically rare, annual shark attacks and human fatalities increased in 2023, according to the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File. ISAF, a database of global shark attacks, reported in February that there were 69 confirmed unprovoked cases worldwide last year, 10 of which were fatal. That number aligns with the most recent five-year average (between 2018-2022) of 63 incidents annually.

A potential factor in the rise is climate change, researchers have said, but the increase could also be due to a combination of more people being in the ocean each year and a stronger emphasis placed on reporting bites and fatalities.

...continued

swipe to next page