The attack occurred just before 9am HST (8pm BST) on Saturday morning when the man was swimming just 55 metres off Ka’anapali Beach Park. The victim was later identified as a 65-year-old man from California, according to Dan Dennison from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. The man was rescued from the sea and was brought back to shore via a jet ski to perform CPR.
However, rescue workers were unable to save him and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Dennison said: “Following standard protocols, warning signs are up for a 1/2 mile (800 meters) on either side of the incident area and will remain in place until at least noon tomorrow.
“At that time if an assessment shows no signs of sharks the signs will come down.”
There is yet to be any confirmation on what type of shark could have attacked the man.
READ MORE: Shark attack: Hawaii beaches CLOSED after woman is hospitalised
The beach is located on the western coast of Maui which is the state’s second largest island.
The shocking event marks the first fatal shark attack in Hawaii since April 2015 when a 65-year-old woman was killed by a tiger shark off of Maui.
It is also the first fatal shark attack in the US since September 2018 when a 26-year-old man was killed by a great white shark off the coast of Massachusetts.
According to figures from the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), sharks only kill about six people per year on average.
Five people were killed by sharks in 2018, which was down from six in 2017.
ISAF said: “The sombre truth is that most of the world’s shark populations are in decline, or exist at greatly reduced levels, as a consequence of overfishing and habitat loss.”
It comes as a father and son recently had their fishing boat attacked by a shark off of Cape Elizabeth Point in Adelaide, Australia, according to the MailOnline.
The shark circled their boat for five minutes before trying to take a chunk out of the fishing boat.