The key question researchers set out to answer is: whether recent shark bite incidents are best explained by pure chance and because there is an increasing number of people in the water -- or whether there is a specific reason sharks are behaving the way they are around Maui. At the time the study was funded, there had been eight attacks statewide and 10 the year before -- despite a prior statewide average of only three to four attacks every year. There have been three so far this year.