In March of 2009, Mike Spalding was long-distance swimming across the Alenuihaha channel at night between the Big Island and Maui.
"Five hours into the swim, once I got into the deep water, I started bumping into cuttlefish," he says.
Ten miles off-shore, he felt another bump.
"I felt a pinprick in my chest and it was the first bite from the Cookiecutter," he says.
He knows now it was a Cookiecutter shark that attacked him, but at the time Spalding had no idea what hit him.
"I knew I had to get out of the water because something bad was down there."
As he was getting out of the water he felt another sharp pain, a Cookiecutter shark bit into the calf muscle on his leg.
Spalding was rushed to the hospital, where he had a skin graft, and the bite took months to heal...leaving a mark notorious with the Cookiecutter shark.
"The teeth are razor sharp, so they bite in, they clamp down tight, and there's a quick twist, and they pull it out really neatly," describes Andew Rossiter, Waikiki Aquarium Director.
But never before had scientists seen such a bite on a living person. Now a new study by Hawaii and Florida researchers has determined Spalding is the first documented case.
"If you saw one of these 20 inch sharks swimming around you wouldn't think anything of it, but they are nasty," says Spalding.
The shark is between 20-22 inches long, but don't let its size fool you, it's been known to attack dolphins, killer whales, even the rubber seals of nuclear submarines according to the study.
"They are pretty widespread. They are found in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian oceans, so they're everywhere," says Rossiter.
Scientists say swimmers should take caution when out in deep waters at night, especially during bright moonlight - the sharks are attracted to light.
"They're out there, be careful," says Rossiter.
The study will be published in an upcoming edition of the journal "Pacific Science".
