Is this the first shark fatality on a kayak angler?

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/2013/12/05/hawaiian-man-dies-shark-attack-kayak-fishing/

I've heard it predicted when reading some of the shark threads on here. Heard of the kayak getting some damage but this is the first I've heard of of an actual fatality to a kayak fisherman.

your link only takes me to a page about Thresher fishing from a kayak.

Whoops. Same source, different article. Fixed it now I think.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/us/hawaii-fatal-shark-attack/

Here's the CNN coverage.

But authorities believe he died of his injuries during the boat journey

It's sad if the guy really bled out during the boat ride in.  If he hadn't already bled into shock, I would have thought he could have been saved.

Year's ago when I was working in the Cambodian refugee camps, I arrived early one morning to open up the camp and found the medics attending to a young man who had stepped on a land mine.  They had applied tourniquets to both thighs and when I removed the dressings I saw that both his calves had been blown off, dangling at the ankles by the Achilles tendons.  I re-wrapped him and had him transported to the ICRC hospital in Khao-I-Dang (the same camp hospital actually shown at the tail end of the "Killing Fields" movie.

After he left I commented to my nurse that the guy seemed strangely familiar to me and she said, Yeh, he's your butcher.  He was a free spirited, happy wandering who roamed deep in the forest to trap exotic animals and birds to sell as pets to the Thais on the black market.  A few days prior he had been in the ward trying to sell some birds to the patients and I asked him if he could get me some python.  I wanted to cook some up to see how it tastes and he said he would bring me back a few kilos.

After I closed up camp for the day I journeyed to the ICRC hospital to see if he had survived.  He had, but both his legs had been amputated above the knees.  I asked him what had happened and he said he had gone out trapping and the local villagers neglected to tell him that they had placed an anti-personnel mine on the trail in order to get a wild boar.  I felt so sorry that this happy wanderer would be confined to a wheel chair from then on.

When I first arrived and contacted the German ICRC surgeon to ask about his condition, the surgeon reamed me out for allowing the tourniquets to remain in place.  He said that was really "old school" and that I should instruct the medics to just apply compression dressings to the wounds.  (Tourniquets risk killing the tissue distal to them by cutting off circulation.) But the bottom line for me was--the guy survived.  In the tenuous environment that we worked in, with self taught medics, I wasn't going to tell them to just apply compression to such severe injuries. They often accompanied soldiers bringing wounded from the battle field where 4-6 men carried the wounded in a blanket hammock slung on a bamboo pole; try keeping a compression bandage on doing that!

On a bobbing kayak, I doubt there is sufficient control of movement to adequately stop the bleeding with just applying pressure. If you ever confront such severe wounds, and apply a tourniquet, make sure they are tight enough to stop, and not just stem the bleeding.  But don't over tighten.  Major arteries like the femoral artery to your leg is about the size of your pinkie and can gush a lot of blood quickly, and you only have about 5 liters total to start with. Wider tourniquets more evenly distribute the pressure making crushing injuries less likely.

Once in a more controlled environment like a boat or on land, you might try to use a towel to apply pressure and then slowly release the tourniquet, but you need to really jam the towel into the wound because 100-150 mm of mercury is a lot of pressure to hold back.  If the boat is rocking a lot and you can reach land quickly I'd probably just keep the tourniquet on and not risk having the compress dislodged by the motion of the boat.

Make sure that you actually stop the bleeding and don't just let it just soak the towel which can hold a lot of blood.  There is a saying in surgery, "All bleeding stops".  And either you stop it, or it surely will.

In transit, call in and have the nearest hospital notified and prepare O neg units for possible transfusion.

Thank you, Doug.  Crucial info there that we all should be aware of and prepared to apply. 

Sorry to hear this.
 Sounds like they launched out of Makena Landing. Beautiful place I've enjoyed fishing there. My fishing partner there said, he never dangles his feet in the water after seeing Tigers slam sea turtles.  Capitola, The Bean, Makena Maui, If the water tastes like salt they're there.  Best safety tool is a dependable fishing partner.

When I first arrived and contacted the German ICRC surgeon to ask about his condition, the surgeon reamed me out for allowing the tourniquets to remain in place.  He said that was really "old school" and that I should instruct the medics to just apply compression dressings to the wounds.  (Tourniquets risk killing the tissue distal to them by cutting off circulation.) But the bottom line for me was--the guy survived.  In the tenuous environment that we worked in, with self taught medics, I wasn't going to tell them to just apply compression to such severe injuries. They often accompanied soldiers bringing wounded from the battle field where 4-6 men carried the wounded in a blanket hammock slung on a bamboo pole; try keeping a compression bandage on doing that!

Thanks Doug

Unfortunate and sad to hear. Be safe out there wherever you all are fishin guys, I hate reading stories like this.