HALEIWA, Hawaii (KHON2) — Shark experts are looking for more regulation on shark tours in Hawaii after there have been six shark bites on a shark tour in as many years.

On Thursday, marine biologists, fishermen, water experts, and shark tour operators who do shark tours with cages, discussed the seemingly popular shark tourism industry as a panel with about 50 people in attendance.

“Right now it’s completely lawless,” said Haleiwa fisherman Eddie Ebisui. “It’s the Wild West out there and this industry needs to be regulated.”

He said in the 24 years since shark tours began on North Shore, he’s noticed a change in shark behavior and also an increase in tiger sharks.

Dr. Kim Holland has been studying shark behavior for decades and said the last time he studied shark tours and shark behavior, there was no change in their behavior, but that was 15 years ago.

“I think it’s really important that as much objective information gets shared with the public,” he said on Thursday about why he decided to be on the panel. “Shark attacks aren’t typically linked to shark tourism.”

He said 15 years ago there was no evidence the sharks were associating with the cage, and they would leave. “The number of tour operators has increased, whether they apply today, I don’t know,” he said.

The panel then watched several minutes of shark tour operators swimming with, and trying to get the attention of, tiger sharks.

The tiger sharks were at the surface and popping their heads out of water continuously. After a few minutes, Dr. Holland shook his head. He then was given the microphone and said, “That is not typical shark behavior.”

He said it was hard to determine if it was the same shark in all the videos or all different sharks.

Ebisui said he sees about 20 to 25 boats out by the shark diving area daily and said he’s noticed sharks will follow the boats at the surface, which is a risk to humans.

The panel said there are no definitive numbers on how many shark tours are operating out of Haleiwa, but guessed around 10.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources said it has approximately three commercial permits for shark tours.

Shark experts, like Dr. Michael Domeier, said he sees the value in shark tourism for research purposes but said feeding sharks is not only illegal — it’s dangerous.

“It’s against the law, and it bothers me because if the state intended to allow these boats to feed sharks, they would have put a lot more regulations in place to keep people safe,” he told the group.

He said he saw a video on social media in early 2019 showing over a dozen sharks circling behind the back of a boat in Haleiwa. He said he knew the sharks were being fed because sharks don’t behave that way if they aren’t being fed.

He said he wrote a letter to the DLNR warning there could be consequences for these tours. He said a few months later, the first person on a shark tour was bit in Haleiwa.

He said he also started gaining the attention of the shark tour operators.

“I started getting messages from past and current employees of these operators, and they were afraid to talk because many make them sign a non-disclosure agreement, and then they would tell me ‘off the record we’re feeding these sharks every day but don’t tell anyone.'” Dr. Domeier said any non-disclosure agreement is void if the activity itself is illegal.

Experts on the panel said the current penalties are not good enough to deter people from chumming the waters, and said fines and penalties need to be significant to protect people.

According to the DLNR website, all six ‘swimming with sharks’ attacks in Hawaii occurred in Haleiwa and are all considered provoked.

The first was in May 2019, then three people were bitten in September 2019, followed by another person bitten in June 2024, and then an employee named Gavin who was attacked in January 2025.

“Gavin contacted me, and this is a picture of him, he’s young, he’s strong and he got a job with one of these shark tourism boats,” Dr. Domeier showed the panel.

He said Gavin told him the boat was chumming the waters that day, and it was enough that there were bait fish around and under the boat.

The employee told Dr. Domeier that the captain told everyone to get out of the water but a visitor needed help getting out. So Gavin jumped in to assist and the bait ball surrounded him and a shark went in and bit Gavin.

“It’s graphic, but I think you need to see it,” Dr. Domeier said while showing the room the photo of what was left of the young man’s forearm.

“I asked if he had any training for this job and he said ‘None at all,’ I asked if they chummed the water and he said, ‘Every day.’ I asked if there was a first aid kit on board and Gavin said ‘no.’ Legislators needed to fix this, if we’re going to have this industry, we need rules in place that protect people better,” Dr. Domeier added.

Both the state and federal governments prohibit chumming in their waters.

Legislators have tried to pass rules on the industry for decades, but the DLNR said there are currently no rules against getting too close to a shark.

**Editors note: There are some shark tour operators that do not chum the waters when conducting tour sessions.