Mike Spalding (born 1947) is a

marathon swimmer Marathon swimming is a class of open water swimming defined by long distances (at least ) and traditional rules based in English Channel swimming. Unlike marathon foot-races which have a specifically defined distance, ''marathon swims'' vary in ...

, and one of only two people to have swum all nine channels of the main Hawaiian Islands. He lives on

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

. On March 16, 2009 Spalding became one of the few humans to be attacked by the deep water

cookiecutter shark The cookiecutter shark (''Isistius brasiliensis''), also called the cigar shark, is a species of small squaliform shark in the family Dalatiidae. This shark occurs in warm, oceanic waters worldwide, particularly near islands, and has been reco ...

. He was bitten by one of the sharks while swimming between the islands of

Hawai'i Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and

in what is referred to as the

Alenuihaha Channel In an archipelago like the Hawaiian Islands the water between islands is typically called a ''channel'' or ''passage''. Described here are the channels between the islands of Hawaiʻi, arranged from northwest to southeast. Kaulakahi Channel T ...

. The attack occurred at 8:15 pm 10 miles off Upolu point. The cookie cutter shark was attracted to squid that were in turn drawn to the light on the escort boat. Just before the attack the swimmer felt squid bumping into him while swimming. The cookie cutter shark first attached itself to the upper torso but did not bite as it was scared away by the swimming motion. On exiting the water into the escort kayak the second bite took a round cookie cutter chunk of flesh out of the lower left calf. Spalding completed the crossing a year and a half later without incident except for the appearance of an

oceanic whitetip shark The oceanic whitetip shark (''Carcharhinus longimanus''), also known as shipwreck shark, Brown Milbert's sand bar shark, brown shark, lesser white shark, nigano shark, oceanic white-tipped whaler, and silvertip shark, is a large pelagic requiem ...

in the same vicinity of the cookie cutter shark incident.

Accomplishments

All were solo swims except for the Kaieiewaho Channel, which was a six-person

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

. They were accomplished in the following order. *Auau Channel, August 15, 1983, Lanai to Maui (8.2 miles), 6:13 *Pailolo Channel, November 30, 1990, Maui to Molokai (8.5 miles), 4:47 *Alalakeiki Channel, April 14, 2001, Maui to Kahoolawe (7.5 miles), 3:30 *Kaulakahi Channel, July 20, 2003, Kauai to Niihau (17 miles), 10:45 *Kealaikahiki Channel, September 11, 2005, Kahoolawe to Lanai (18.5 miles), 11:53 *Kalohi Channel, August 5, 2007, Molokai to Lanai (9.3 miles), 6:47 *Kaiwi Channel, September 20, 2007, Molokai to Oahu (26 miles), 15:15 *Kaieiewaho Channel, November 20, 2010, Oahu to Kauai (72-mile relay), 47:55 *Alenuihaha Channel, February 27, 2011, Hawaii to Maui (30 miles), 19:46

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spalding, Mike American male swimmers Sportspeople from Hawaii Swimmers from Hawaii