KHON-2 is reporting that a Maui man was involved in the first documented case of a cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) biting a human. Mike Spalding was swimming across the Alenuihaha channel in 2009 at night when a cookiecutter shark bit his calf.
When Spalding was initially bit, he did not know what was responsible for the attack. However, a recent study by researchers in Hawaii and Florida has confirmed that the species responsible for Spalding’s bite was the cookiecutter shark, making the bite the first documented case of the species biting a human.
For more on the story, check out KHON2