KAHULUI, Hawaii -- A Los Angeles sound engineer vacationing on Maui told his story about the moments after a shark bit him while he floated off shore.

His doctor said Aaron Finley is lucky. The shark did what he called a "catch and release."

Expecting to bite into a seal or a turtle and finding a human leg instead, the shark didn't come back for seconds.

"It just felt like I hit, like a wave knocked me into a rock or something. Yeah, it was like a hard bump," Aaron Finley said.

Finley said he was bitten by an 8- to 12-foot shark while he was floating on his back about 30 yards offshore from the Four Seasons Resort in Wailea on Maui Monday afternoon.

"I was worried that he was going to come back for more, but not too worried. I was just mainly trying to get back in at that point, as quick as possible, and get into shallower waters where he would be less likely to come back to," Finley said.

He may have lost a big piece of flesh, but he said he did not lose his dignity as he swam to shore, calling for help.

"There's nothing quite as embarrassing as being out in the middle of the ocean and to have to yell for help," Finley said.

"He was doing it so calmly like, 'If it's no trouble, maybe, lend me a hand?'" Finley's fiancé, Megan Tharpe, said.

The shark took a slice out of his lower left leg.

"It was like a slash on both sides and then there was a littler one up here that wasn't as bad. I didn't even know about that one until we got to the hospital," Finley said.

Finley was not able to identify the type of shark that bit him, but his plastic surgeon, who has treated eight other Maui shark bite victims, said he believes it was a tiger shark, based on the way the attack happened, and because there were several tiger shark sightings in the Wailea area in recent days.

Dr. Peter Galpin said Finley is lucky that sharks do not like the taste of humans as much as they like turtles and seals.

"We're kind of like the brussel sprouts of the shark diet. They don't really like us too much," Galpin said.

In an interesting twist, Finley just sang and recorded a children's song about a shark back in Los Angeles, and he had delivered that demo tape to his fiancé's cousin on Maui during this trip.

He is due for surgery on Thursday to clean his wound and close it back up.