By Star-Advertiser staff 
 
 
 
 The man who was seriously injured Saturday night off Waikiki Beach was likely bitten by an eel and not a shark, Ocean Safety officials said. 
 
 Ocean Safety received a report from the Department of Land and Natural Resources this morning saying the victim's injuries are consistent with an eel bite, said spokeswoman Shayne Enright. 
 
 At 6:50 p.m. Saturday, Paramedics responded to a 911 report of an injured 33-year-old surfer near the Honolulu Police substation on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. 
 
 Paramedics found a man with serious injuries to his left foot. Bystanders were using towels to stop the bleeding. 
 
 The man, a local resident, said he was surfing when he fell off a wave and felt pain to his foot. 
 
 Paramedics took him to the hospital in serious condition. 
 
 Lifeguards were not on duty at the time. However, Ocean Safety brought in lifeguards to patrol the water on a rescue watercraft. 
 
 Ocean Safety also noted that there have been a consistent school of barracudas in areas off Waikiki. 
 
 Earlier Saturday, at 11:40 a.m., paramedics responded to a call at 1502 Mokulua Drive involving a 44-year-old man, an Oahu resident, who was injured in an apparent shark attack off Lanikai. 
 
 The Lanikai victim and another man were swimming to shore from the Mokulua Islands, when the shark attacked. The attack happened about 50 to 100 yards from shore, the Honolulu Fire Department said. 
 
 The victim sustained injuries to his lower legs but the other man was not injured. 
 
 A Good Samaritan on a one-man outrigger canoe brought the injured man to shore. Bystanders helped make a tourniquet to help stop the bleeding until paramedics arrived. 
 
 The victim suffered injuries to both feet, an Emergency Services Department spokeswoman said. Paramedics took him to the hospital in critical condition. 
 
 According to witnesses, the shark involved was a 10-foot tiger shark. 
 
 Lifeguards on rescue watercraft patrolled the area, advising people to stay out of the water. 
 
 Saturday's attack in Lanikai come just eight days after 25-year-old Colin Cook was bitten by a shark at the North Shore surf spot known as Leftovers. He lost his left leg above his knee and is recovering at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific in Honolulu. ||||| A 44-year-old man was taken to the hospital Saturday after a shark attack off Lanikai Beach. He suffered critical injuries to his feet, Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman Shayne Enright said. 
 
 The Honolulu Fire Department said the victim was swimming with another man to shore from the Mokulua Islands when the shark attacked. The incident happened just before noon, 50 to 100 yards off the popular beach in Kailua on Oahu's windward side. 
 
 Lanikai resident Mike Dilks and his friend Joey Montano said they heard two people, each in a one-man canoe, yelling from the water. 
 
 "As they got closer, maybe 100 yards offshore, we realized that one of them said 911 and was waving his paddle around for help," Montano said. 
 
 Dilks paddled out on his board to see what was wrong. 
 
 "I yelled in, ‘Call 911! Shark attack! We need a tourniquet!" Dilks recalled. 
 
 Montano said he was already on the phone with police. Dilks said his girlfriend grabbed a rope from his garage for them to use as a tourniquet to control the bleeding. 
 
 "I didn't realize the severity of his injuries until we pulled him out of the water," said Dilks. 
 
 Fire officials said they received the call around 11:40 a.m. and got on scene at 11:47 a.m. 
 
 "I yelled to the firefighters, two leg…two legs shark attack,” said Dilks. 
 
 "Injuries were pretty extreme, both legs, just above the ankle were just hanging on,” Montano said. 
 
 Dilks said his other friend, who is an EMT, couldn’t find a pulse on the victim. 
 
 "I talked to him. I asked him what his name was. He remembered his name, but he wasn't real responsive," he said. 
 
 "He was very pale. He just had no color…we were all just yelling his name, just saying to keep talking…you could see just life slipping away…still in shock. Life is precious. It could be gone the next day," Montano said. 
 
 First responders cleared out the beach from Bellows to Kailua Beach Park. 
 
 Word of the attack spread quickly up and down the beach. 
 
 "It was a seven-foot tiger. He said the stripes were very distinctive," said Jim Cobb. 
 
 The victim is being treated at the Queens Medical Center. 
 
 "I think I just did what anyone would do in that situation. We just went into action...he's in my thoughts and prayers,” Dilks said. 
 
 Authorities haven't released the man's name yet. 
 
 Authorities have closed access to the water from Kailua Beach to Bellows until further notice. 
 
 This is the sixth shark attack in Hawaii so far this year, and the second on Oahu in just eight days. 
 
 It was only last week Friday when 25-year-old Colin Cook, of Kawailoa, lost his left leg and some of the fingers on his left hand in a shark attack off a surf spot on Oahu's north shore called Leftovers. 
 
 The other incidents this year were: 
 
 On Sept. 20, a 27-year-old Kohala man suffered severe leg injuries when a 13-foot tiger shark bit him. 
 
 On April 29, a 65-year-old woman was killed while snorkeling off Maui's Ahihi Bay. The woman was in 20- to 35-foot-deep waters, and was about 200 yards offshore. 
 
 On March 18, a 60-year-old man suffered cuts to his forearm, left arm and thigh while standing in 4-foot-deep water off Hapuna Beach on the Big Island. Authorities said the man was bit by a 8- to 10-foot-long tiger shark. 
 
 On Jan. 27, a 20-year-old Maui man was bit by a shark he had caught while fishing in Lahaina. 
 
 Copyright 2015 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved. ||||| HONOLULU (AP) — Initial observations indicate a surfer was bit by an eel, not a shark, over the weekend off Hawaii's popular Waikiki Beach, but officials said they're working to confirm that. 
 
 FILE - This Dec. 26, 2011 file photo shows the Mokulua Islands from a view on the Lanikai Pillboxes trail in Lanikai, Hawaii. Authorities say they're investigating which sharp-toothed sea creature bit... (Associated Press) 
 
 The surfer was hurt Saturday, hours after a shark attacked a man off Oahu's Lanikai Beach. The men were hospitalized in serious condition. Updates on their injuries weren't immediately available Monday. 
 
 The state Department of Land and Natural Resources was waiting to interview the man hurt off Waikiki to make a final determination about which sharp-toothed creature bit him, agency spokesman Dan Dennison said. 
 
 Hawaii's coral reefs are home to a variety of eels, including some with large mouths and sharp, long teeth that help in capturing prey. They usually are not dangerous or aggressive unless provoked, the Maui Ocean Center's website says. 
 
 Dennison said this is the first time he had heard of a possible eel attack in Hawaii waters. The state does not keep records of such bites, as they do for sharks, he said. 
 
 In the earlier attack, witnesses said a tiger shark bit a 44-year-old man off Lanikai Beach around noon Saturday. 
 
 The man was swimming to shore from the Mokulua Islands, Honolulu Emergency Services spokeswoman Shayne Enright said. 
 
 He was attacked about 50 to 100 yards from shore, according to the Honolulu Fire Department. A local man helped him to shore on an outrigger canoe, she said. 
 
 Saturday's bite was the sixth confirmed shark encounter in Hawaii this year, and the second in as many weeks on Oahu, state statistics show. A man lost his leg when a tiger shark bit him on Oahu's North Shore less than two weeks ago. 
 
 Most shark bites this year have happened in turbid or murky water, and all so far have resulted in injuries. In April, a shark killed a woman while she was snorkeling off Maui. 
 
 Fourteen shark encounters occurred in Hawaii in 2013, and two were fatal. Two did not involve injuries as the sharks bit surfboards but not the people riding them. 
 
 In 2014, there were six shark encounters, but three involved no injuries. None of those attacks were fatal. 
 
 Officials recorded an average of 4.2 shark encounters per year from 2005 to 2009. Since 2010, the average has increased to 8.6 per year. 
 
 Dr. Carl Meyer, a shark and reef researcher at the University of Hawaii's Institute of Marine Biology, said Hawaiian oral traditions and current statistics show shark bites are more common in the fall. 
 
 "Hawaiians have also long known that fall is pupping season for tiger sharks, and the 'fall spike' in shark bites may well be linked to this natural, annual phenomenon," Meyer said in a statement Monday. 
 
 However, he noted shark bites happen in the state year-round, and the number of bites is very low compared with the number of people in the ocean. 
 
 "The number of people living in Hawaii and using the ocean for recreation has increased over time, and this is the single most likely reason for a higher number of shark bites in recent years," Meyer said. 
 
 Officials warn people to stay out of murky water because of an increased likelihood of shark bites. Sharks are able to see well in conditions that humans cannot, making dark, murky water especially dangerous to swim in. The water was turbid Saturday after several days of rain and stormy weather. 
 
 Hawaii Tourism Authority president George Szigeti said in a statement Monday that the weekend's bites were isolated but that people should be aware of the dangers in the ocean. 
 
 "As an island state, we are surrounded by the ocean, so it is important that both our visitors and residents take precaution to understand ocean safety and take precaution when entering the water," he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Caleb Jones: https://twitter.com/CalebAP
– A surfer is recovering from serious injuries after he fell off a wave in Hawaii and was possibly bitten by … an eel. Yes, humans should apparently fear the creatures' teeth as well as their zapping ability. The 33-year-old local man was surfing at Waikiki Beach on Saturday when he felt a pain in his left foot. He reached shore, where bystanders had to use towels to stop the bleeding before paramedics arrived, reports the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Though a rep for Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources says he's never heard of an eel attack in the state, officials found no sign of a shark and say the man's injuries are consistent with an eel bite, rather than a shark bite, per KHON2. Though eels frequent Hawaii's coral reefs, officials are waiting to interview the man before coming to any concrete conclusions, according to the AP. In the meantime, the Ocean Safety group isn't ruling out other options, noting barracudas have also been spotted near Waikiki recently. Hours before the attack, another man was injured off Oahu's Lanikai Beach, though officials suspect a tiger shark was the culprit in that case. Witnesses say the 44-year-old was swimming with a friend 50 to 100 yards from shore when he was bitten. "Both legs, just above the ankle, were just hanging on," one bystander tells Hawaii News Now. The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition.