Severe Barracuda Attack
 

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album350/Cuda_L_s.jpg
Photo: Rick Iossi

This is a fish tale or more accurately the story of an nasty encounter between Chef Paul and a Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda). Paul Menta is a very well known kiteboarding instructor through The Kitehouse and PASA, is an Executive Chef at The Grand Cafe in Key West and is an active spearfisherman. This last activity takes us into the following story ...

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/Keys_Sat.jpg
The Florida Keys and Sambo Reefs about 6 miles off Key West, FL

In February 2005 Paul Menta, his regular diving partner Jessie, Jack a diver for the Mel Fisher Salvage organization, Chris and Mia headed out spearfishing.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/Paul_in_Turks.jpg
Paul Menta shooting some video in the Turks and Caicos


The were doing drift diving runs in about 40 to 60 feet of water off the Western Sambo Reef about six miles off Key West, Florida. Visibility was about 70 ft. in bluewater. They had been out for about four hours.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/Sambos.jpg
The area of Western Sambo Reef

Paul said he could feel a special energy or level of activity on the reef. "The water was alive" and "everyone was hunting that day," fish and divers alike. It was during a full moon and the mutton snappers were spawning heating things up. They had nailed a couple of groupers and mutton and were just getting into some more.

Paul eased down to the bottom, down current some of the crew on the other side of a large coral head. They other guys had just shot two mutton snapper. There were a couple of other mutton drifting Paul's way so he grabbed the bottom to wait for them to come by. One came up and Paul took him with a head shot.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/Mutton_Snapper.jpg
A mutton snapper checks things out.
From: http://technopics.com/

Paul then started for the surface with the mutton held close in. He had used this as a deterrent to other predators in the past with success. He was about 20 ft. off the bottom when something hit him HARD in the right shoulder from behind. The mutton jerked in his hand as well. Paul's anxiety spiked as he looked around trying to figure out what was going on. He saw a barracuda, a big one about 5 1/2 ft. long and fat turning around to face him. It was in full attack mode, jaws snapping, body arched and snaking fast as it bore in on him again. A few seconds must have elapsed since his shoulder was hit and he instinctively raised his hand to protect his face and dropped the fish and gun from his right hand. Just that fast the cuda struck Paul hard ripping into his arm and then flashed off slammed into the sinking mutton snapper to finish up.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album350/cuda_sky_s.jpg
Photo: Rick Iossi

The shock of the encounter rammed into him and Paul's heart rev'd way up. This is exactly what you don't want on a breathhold dive. He is still 20 ft. beneath the surface and the hunger for air has just exploded to overshadow all other considerations, shredded arm, barracuda attacks or whatever else might charge out of the blue. He just wanted one thing very badly, air. He made the surface, grabbed a lung full and continued to chug in the stuff through his snorkel. He then moved on to priority two and took a good look beneath him to see what might be moving in for a second bite. There was a lot of activity below, with some sharks showing up. After all a few mutton had been speared, the cuda was going off on his prize and Paul had a chunk of arm flesh ripped from him. Buffets open guys, come and get it. He then looked at his arm, not good. His arm was ripped open, with bone showing. The laceration was across the entire width of his arm, perhaps five inches along the length and was gaping with torn flesh and muscle. It wasn't bleeding that much amazingly so no arteries had been sliced, yet. Next he looked up to locate the boat. With all the current he had drifted about 300 yards perhaps more, sigh. He grabbed his speargun float line and wound it around his arm just below the elbow as a loose tourniquet. He was still pulling in huge panting breaths when he heard Jessie and Jack yell a hundred yards or so away, "SHARKS!"

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/...hawkins_45.jpg
Black tips cruising
From: http://www.underwaterhangover.com/

More accurately, lots of sharks. Paul signaled Jessie with his uninjured arm and yelled help. They know that if either one of them signals in this way it means either they are injured or are about to succumb to Shallow Water Blackout. The guys started charge over to Paul as the sharks continue heat up on the bottom. Paul got to the boat under his own steam while focusing more on the sharks. There was a bull and four blacktips circling on the bottom and not near the surface, yet.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-Bullshark.JPG
A bull moving in
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_shark

Mia was in the boat and Paul was about out of energy while wondering about the sharks as well. Paul got into the boat with Mia's help. She asked "what should I do?" Paul said, grab my arm and hold the wound shut. Mia did just that, grabbing the torn bits in both hands and compressing the mess back into place. The guys got on the boat and asked what happened? Paul said he was attacked by a barracuda. They said, well that couldn't have been that bad. To set the story straight, Paul and Mia released their grips on the arm and blew the guys away with the gory spectacle. After washing it out with freshwater, Mia and Paul attempted to hold the mass together for a rush trip to Stock Island just north of Key West. Jack called ahead to his buds on the Fisher treasure salvage vessel to get his car ready to haul Paul to the ER pronto.


http://www.melfisher.com/SalvageOper...eWaterBoat.jpg
Mel Fisher even got involved, or at least divers in his organization did in laying on Jack's car at the dock on Stock Island to rush Paul to the hospital.
From: http://www.melfisher.com/

A very pregnant nurse, perhaps 8 months along, asked Paul what happened. He said he got hit by a barracuda and took his hands from the wound. She roundly chastised him for teasing cudas and saying he should know better. He said no teasing was involved just spearing. As it happened the nurse was also a spearfisherman. Paul started to worry about the nurse going into labor in the midst of his treatment she seemed to be so far along. So they worked on his arm, irrigating it (incredibly painful) several times while asking him to close his fist to verify continued nerve function as they were exposed to the light of day as well. They even pulled a cuda tooth fragment from his bone, wonder if Paul still has it? No painkillers had been administered to this point. He did get a shot of novacane before he received 23 stitches underneath and 14 staples on top (his hands were tired at this point so why not use staples to hold it together instead?). He though had he not had his hand in a loose claw when the cuda hit, he might have lost some fingers during the attack. A couple of years later things are pretty much back to normal though as a keepsake Paul tells me he has lost feeling in some small areas of the surface of his left hand. It doesn't seem to have slowed him down, not by a long shot.



http://impressions.com.my/dive/barracuda.jpg
From: http://impressions.com.my/

Text Copyright 2007 FKA, Inc.
.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album350/P8040082_s.jpg
Photo: Rick Iossi


So just how common are barracuda attacks? Not very common at all.


"Danger to Humans
Attacks on humans by great barracuda are rare. Inquisitive, sight-oriented fish, barracudas sometimes exhibit the unnerving habit of trailing snorkelers and divers. When attacks occur more often than not it is because a barracuda attempts to steal a fish from spearfishers or mistakenly interprets a shiny object, such as a diving knife, for the glint of a shiny fish. Such incidents usually consist of one very quick strike, the result of which may be a laceration and some loss of tissue. Fatalities from barracuda attacks are rare. In 1947, a death off Key West was attributed to a barracuda, followed by another case off the coast of North Carolina in 1957. A well-documented barracuda attack occurred on a free diver off Pompano Beach, Florida in 1960. The diver was bitten twice, and the resulting injuries required 31 stitches. However, such attacks are uncommon and more often than not easily preventable with a few simple precautions."
From: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Galler...Barracuda.html

and

"Barracudas have struck twice off the Kona Coast at shiny barrettes in women's hair. The women did fine, but one needed surgery to remove embedded teeth. Still, those are two of only six recorded barracuda attacks in Hawaii in the last 42 years. Three others (counting Loumoli) were fisherman; the other was a camera-bearing scuba diver."
From: http://susanscott.net/OceanWatch2005/jul29-05.html


An probable barracuda attack off Oahu on another spearfisherman with some lasting damage appears at:
http://www.fishtheoutdoors.com/news/...ault.php?id=90

Another diver attack, (Paul check this one out):
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=33429

More about Cudas at:
http://www.ifyoudive.com/news/newsar...jectID=7621515
http://www.skin-diver.com/department....asp?theID=271
(including quotes from my old acquaintance Dr. Donald de Silva of RSMAS, gone but not forgotten).



Paul has a special relationship with marine predators, one of respect, understanding and frequent exposure. Between free diving, kiteboarding and standup paddle surfing, Paul spends a substantial part of the year in the ocean. As a function of this extended exposure and less clear factors he has been attacked by sharks while kiteboarding twice and now has suffered this rare but serious barracuda attack while spearfishing. I am aware of about seven kiteboarder shark attacks worldwide to put things in perspective. I asked him what he might have done differently to reduce the odds of the barracuda attack. Considering the "sneak attack" launched by the cuda short of not being there there was much else he thought he could do. These days he is more aggressive with barracuda in the area before he shoots. He gets the fish into the boat even faster than before if possible. Paul mentioned an interesting trick he uses if a cuda comes up when he is trying to get a fish into the boat. Depending on the barracuda's behavior he my drop a dive knife to spiral flashing to the bottom. This may be a pretty good distraction for cuda's although he thought it might not do much to an overly interested shark. I told him I used to do something similar with shells at the beach in the water with barracudas when I was a spud. They get rev'd up and hit the flashing object, knife or shell. He is a very well rounded waterman with decades of experience in many countries worldwide (his business was called "Kitesurf-the-Earth"). Search for "Menta" on this site and you will come up with many great stories.

Anyway, have a care Paul, I know you will and have fun out there.





http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/...Cuba.sized.jpg
Paul starting a world record attempt with four other riders to cross from Key West To Cuba via Kite in 2001. That was an incredible story all by itself. Read all about it at: http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=4178
Photo: Red Bull

Paul related a more recent spearfishing encounter with predators, this time sharks. I had no idea tiburons were this thick in Key West. Then again, I quit spearfishing decades ago, takes me off the menu somewhat. Anyway over to Paul ...

Late in April 2007, Paul and Jessie were free diving a few miles off Key West to the west of the Sambos in about 50 ft. of water. They had just splashed in, groupers were roaming around with just one Blacktip on the prowl. Jessie dove to nail one, got a good sized 35 pounder but it was still fighting pretty hard. Hard enough to saturate the surrounding water with an unavoidable dinner bell or was it a fight starting bell to sharks in the area. Soon enough, there were five blacktips circling closely followed by a good sized bull shark.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Galler...blacktip13.jpg
A blacktip underway. Love this shot, that's an antique hand crank 16 mm Bolex "Wrecking Ball" camera housing. Very reliable system although a bit primative these days. (From: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/)

Jessie was dragging the fish over to the boat and started to try to climb in. Paul was watching the sharks and riding herd on Jessie's retreat as best he could. He had taking the slip tip off of his spear shaft for a defensive gill shot for an overly interested shark. He tells me this works but really sets the rest of the sharks into a tizzy or is that a frenzy? Paul indicated that some fish kills attract sharks more than others. More oily fish like jack and mackerel can really bring them in hot and fast. Strangely enough he tells me a shot barracuda can send bull sharks off to distraction and is a major disincentive to shooting them in particularly in bluewater. Strange dietary preferences of sharks!

http://echeng.com/journal/images/mis...-yates5018.jpg
A bull shark. Ever hear of the "heatbreak of remoras?" The hell with the bull, those damn remoras give me the willeys when they crawl all over you. (From: http://echeng.com/)

Paul then sees the Bull hit the lightspeed switch and come barreling through, striking Jessie's grouper. No worries, they still had the fish, uh well half of it anyway. Whoops! Paul was interested in getting the hell out of Dodge himself, trouble was the sharks were between him and the boat. A few more tense moments and a hole opened up, Paul slipped through and onboard. They decided to try another spot, wonder why? They saw another shark there as well. Didn't know KW as this "sharky." Live and learn, if you are lucky.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album284/...fish.sized.jpg
Breaking bread, uh fish with sharks. Here's your half guys!

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album294/..._002.sized.jpg


We recently headed down to Key West via high speed ferry out of Miami via The Key West Express. It is a great way to go, fast, easy, scenic and at $99, R/T, less with coupons a bargain. It is a natural with water people.


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Leave Miami at 8:30 am and you pull into Key West harbor by 12:30 pm. Rent a bike and tool around the island, head out to the Flats with the Kitehouse.


My wife took me down for my birthday. We hooked up with Paul Menta who decided to go hunt up some fish for the birthday dinner along with Pedro.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album294/cuda_2_s.jpg
Recall the last encounter with a barracuda


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Paul shows off his cudda bite scars. It has healed incredibly well in just two years.


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So Paul, Pedro, Laura and myself head out to see what we can find on the reef to the west and south west of the island.


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Paul sporting his pole gun. We had to watch the time and so stayed fairly close to shore in slighly turbid water.


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We saw a turtle hanging out under a head.


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Laura glides along pushing a pressure wave.


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A moray hangs out. It was a full moon and larger fish were not to be found. Despite that Paul nailed both a hogfish and snapper for dinner. Not only did he catch dinner, he COOKED it. Paul is also the executive chef at The Grand Cafe down on Duval.


http://www.keywesttravelguide.com/grand-cafe.jpg
The Grand Cafe


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He started with appetisers, tuna tartare for me and a great scallop dish for Laura. It was FRESH and excellent! Sorry about the poor image quality, I only had a camera phone with me unfortunately.


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Paul followed with a marvelous "Surf and Turf" including hogfish, snapper with a great sauce and a fine fillet cooked just so. It was a great meal and couldn't have been any fresher.


We didn't have any cuda encounters this trip. In reality baracuda attacks seem to be quite rare anyway.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album294/cuda_s.jpg
The mosquitos can be fairly large in the Keys in heavy rains. Just remember to bring a swatter for the cudas, they can fly too.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album294/21_G.jpg
Here's the ferry underway west of the island. I tried to catch it once a few weeks ago about a 1/2 mile off Smathers. Just couldn't move quite fast enough, next time.


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Heading north out of Key West harbor


Photos: Rick Iossi

Any other unusual barracuda encounters out there? Haven't spoken to Paul recently. I sure hope he hasn't added any more marine predator go to's to his record. Two kiting related shark attacks, out of seven worldwide that I have heard about and an extremely rare cuda diver attack. Definitely time to change colognes.

The story above details about how a barracuda got the fish and spearfisherman for that matter. The following clip shows sharks getting some of their own in an encounter with a spearfisherman. Their environment, their rules.

Don't want to launch a "Shark Week" on here, it is bad enough when they do it on TV. Tacky, crass and largely irrelevant miss information in some cases. Still, just came across some amazing white shark footage shot by a free diver off South Africa. If you wanted to see closeup details of white sharks hanging out, here's your big chance ...

Barracuda Attack
 

I think some has been telling fish tales with the barracuda attack story. I dont know who this Paul Menta is but this story has obviously been taken from an event that happened to me and some of my co-workers.

I would have to be the Jack in the story. I am the only Jack that worked for the Fisher group during that time, I lived and kept my car on Stock Island, we dock our boats on Stock Island. We did have a crew member become a victim of a barracuda attack while spearfishing at our work sites, during the same time this attack would have taken place. I did call over the radio to our survey boat who was out at our work site to evac the crewmen so he could get proper stitches, so maybe thats where this person stole the story. Interestingly enough, we had a Paul, Jessie, and a Chris working around that time but not together at once.

So if someone is going to use me by name then they better get their facts straight.

It was the guys fault for getting bit in the first place. From what the other crew in the water tell me he was antagonizing the cuda, poking it with the spear pole. If memory serves he got fired very shortly after that.

Not a big deal I just dont know why someone would usurp that story in this way. :confused:

Hello Jack,

That is some strange coincidence. Don't know what to tell you. I've known Paul for about ten years, never saw him as a bs artist, pretty much the opposite in fact. He is a pretty low key guy despite incidents like this. There have been a number of intriguing adventures over the years with lots of witnesses and scars to go with in a few cases.

I don't know you either. I do know quite a lot about Mel Fisher back in the day. Pretty amazing stories and would make a good movie. Not about the Atocha either, more the behind the scenes stuff. He was a unique individual in treasure salvage.

"I think some has been telling fish tales with the barracuda attack story. I dont know who this Paul Menta is but this story has obviously been taken from an event that happened to me and some of my co-workers.

I would have to be the Jack in the story. I am the only Jack that worked for the Fisher group during that time, I lived and kept my car on Stock Island, we dock our boats on Stock Island. "


I am Paul Menta and jack, big blonde haired guy, looked like tarzan , like on his houseboat next to the mel boat there on stock island. He then girlfriend Mia, who i saw yesterday was living there with him. I have lived in key west for 16 years and so has my best friend jesse who boat we were on,plus....lol i have the scars to prove it. Any way jack moved to cali and became a ablone diver as well as a p/t if you know him, i do not like listing peoples last names. We spent alot of time spear fishing while he was here in key west, he was a nut.

Anyway, i am still in key west and still spearing all the time, so if you are curious of who i am and live here, i am easy to find at the grand cafe on duval or kiteboarding at smathers....hope that clears some stuff up for ya.

I just caught a big barracuda off Key West last week. He was wearing a Kitehouse T-shirt for a trophy! Did a number of jumps.- a KGB and an F16, I think. Had to use one of those long handle de-hookers. I wasn't getting close to that mouth. The teeth look like a bad dental job from pictures, but up close they are razor sharp. I was on a dive trip out of Miami a few years back out to the Caysal(?) Banks. We had all finished diving for the day and were anchored on a sand flat in about 20 feet of crystal clear water. There was a solitary coral head about 20 yards from the boat and I decided to grab my sling and free dive the head and look for something for dinner. There was one very large yellow tail hanging around and didn't seem to be bothered by my presence. Before taking the shot I did a 360 to see if there were any toothy types around. The vis was greater than 100 feet. I nailed the snapper behind the gill and went over to retrieve my catch. I had no sooner picked up the spear, fortunately not close to the fish, than WHAM - a cuda appeared from out of nowhere and bit my future dinner clean in half. I removed the rest of the fish utilizing the coral head and swam back to the boat empty handed.

I had heard about those, new Kitehouse fish tee keepsakes, great marketing idea! Give 'em to the Grunts you know on your reef. Stories like that make you wonder why diver cuda attacks aren't more common? I used to play with them as a kid in the shallows off the beach. I would throw shells out of the water to where they would land over the cuda and do a falling leaf almost hitting them. The cuda would flash out and attack the shells fairly reliably. Cheap thrills for kids. Still, they do have a hair trigger when it comes to attacking yellowtail, mutton and apparently shells too.

I was doing one of my first Keys dives off of Pennecamp a number of years ago and upon entering the water, I found myself in a school of cudas. There must have been a hundred of them. Small ones at the top of the water column and bigger as you went down. I thought they were more of a solitary hunter. Near the bottom, cruising between the coral heads were a couple of seven footers. Of course I wasn't alarmed because the dive master told us that barracudas won't hurt you.!! As I descended, the whole school would orient themselves in my direction. Spooky having all those teeth staring at you. After that, tho, I swapped out my shiny stainless dive watch for a black one.

I was watching a fishing show a couple of nights ago, and Mark Sosin was fishing for sharks in Key West. As I watched, I figured out that they were fishing in the channels off the northwest flats. They would throw the bait onto the flats and retrieve them so they would pop into the channel. They landed a couple of good sized lemon sharks. 6 feet +. I've read on the fishing forums of fisherman catching bull sharks out there, also. Whenever I've done the flats, I've always tried to attempt any new things on the flats themselves, so I wouldn't crash in the channels and have to become a troll bait trying to retrieve my board. Haven't heard of any close encounters on Smathers though. There have been attacks closer to White Street and Higgs beach by bathers trying to feed the nice birdies diving into the water.

Gotten used to cudas they are so common and usually fairly harmless. Then again, I don't spearfish! I can recall some January and February dives during cold fronts. The cuda's were nuts and super agro too. Whipping all over the place doing their rattle snake strung out on angel dust impersonations. Tell you what though, during a dive recently on the Duane, was treated to some unusually aggressive cuda behavior. I was free diving, deep at times too down to 120 ft.. You can't afford to have a lot mess with your head during a serious breathhold. Still, some of the touchy aspect was caught on video, still more on the editing room floor.

http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=8833

You know all the conventional wisdom about avoiding negative shark encounters diving, avoid fish schools being worked, wearing shiny stuff, having blood in the water, oh, and making sure Paul isn't too close by! Not at least unless he is sporting some of those fish tees to hand out.

38,000 hits +?! Lots of interest in barracudas out there.

We ate at the grand cafe in january. that may not be the name of it now, but I recognized the pics. it had a very good buffet--not something spectacular like paul would do, so I guess he's not there now. I also 'ate' at the square taco place after reading you post with pics of it. I particularly did not like the marguerita---made with wine! who does that! haha

I think Paul moved on from The Grand. It was great while he was there to be sure. You have me at a disadvantage, I never liked tequila anyway. It reminded me too much of drinking perfume. Also, I think they use it as worm killer in Mex. At least a worm I saw in a bottle of tequila once was done for or pretty tired at best.

IMHO, if you are not spearing, you are not of interest.

I've been diving since age 13, and still spear (but its not like it use to be).

my theory is sharks and cudas don't really like the taste of humans, since its mostly shark Biting, not Eating.

if they wanted to, most likely they could finish off what they bit... but don't.

most attacks are in shallow waters where parts of people are seen as food, not when the whole person is in the water (like diving).

The exception is spearing. when people get in the way of a meal.


for the kiting crowd, I'd say up the coast is higher risk than say south of WPB. Because you have reefs to the south. further north the shore is the barrier bait fish use to hide. and the shallower the water the higher the risk.


bright clothing, would probably be a good idea too.

-I'm sure no expert, but I did stay at a holiday Inn once or twice..... & just my opinion, based on 40 years diving.

Fortunately, shark attacks on kiters are very rare, fatal ones even more so. They are far more common on bathers, surfers and even divers. I looked into barracuda attacks before writing this post. Reported barracuda attacks are far more rare than shark attacks. Looking at how common cudas are and routinely aggressive they can be, that never made a lot of sense to me. Since I wrote this I have heard about three other cuda attacks on humans not in the databases. Still, they are quite rare.

We started diving around the same time, 1971 for me. I quit spearfishing in 1972 due to what seemed to me to be the unsustainability of the practice in SE Florida. Fish were becoming smaller and less common when compared to years past at that time. All these decades later, things haven't improved.

I just saw an account of a nasty barracuda attack yesterday on a spearfisherman off Humpy Island in Keppel Bay, off the northeast coast of Australia in Queensland. His friend had already put a shaft into it but apparently it had enough capacity left to make a fast attack on the unlucky spearfisherman. Without the intercession of his friends the diver might not have made it with the potential severe blood loss. There is a potential downside with shooting any fish in terms of sustainability but also with something potentially taking an unhealthy interest in you. This spearfisherman blog in Australia strongly advises against shooting any barracuda which I don't recall having seen before but it makes sense on the odd real bad day.



"WARNING: GRAPHICS PICTURES. Adreno has received this news story from a Yeppoon, Queensland customer. They have asked that names not be included. We have posted before about the dangers associated with spearing Barracuda, but we hope these pictures and the experience of these spearos over the weekend prevents further similar incidences from occurring. We advise that divers DO NOT spear Barracuda of any size. If you need to spear a Barracuda that attacks you, you should cut the shooting line immediately and get out of the water.

On Saturday myself and a couple of friends went on what we thought was going to be just another spearing trip. All three of us had been in the water for about 10 minutes when, out of nowhere, a medium sized Barracuda of about 10-12kg rushed at me so quickly that I freaked out and just pulled the trigger on it. It took off peeling line from my reel. It went straight past one of my dive buddies who was just out in front of us. After a minute or 2 of fighting, the Barracuda came back up around us and my dive buddy went down to put another shot in it. The fish was about 10 meters away, but as he stretched his arm out it raced up on him in the blink of an eye and latched onto his arm.

Instantly the water turned red. My dive buddy who was attacked was screaming and yelling, “What do I do?” I told him to get to the boat now and I called the other diver over as well. By the time we got to the boat it seemed the whole ocean was red from blood. We cut the line on the spear and got in the boat to see what the severity of the situation was."

Continued at: http://www.spearfishing.com.au/sf-bl...arly-lost-him/


http://media2.apnonline.com.au/img/m...cuda4_t460.jpg
http://www.whitsundaytimes.com.au/ne...l-bay/2088431/



http://www.mycapricorncoast.com/kepp...keppel-bay.jpg


http://www.vvaaqueensland.asn.au/gfx/QLD.gif


More info at:

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au...l-bay/2088431/


WARNING: There is a gory photo of the injury below, not for light viewing or for children.



































http://i0.wp.com/www.spearfishing.co...size=540%2C960

Another way this might have worked out under different circumstances is worth reading over and considering as it could be even more likely to happen. Not saying it happened this way just that in another time in place, this made-up sequence of events could be even more probable.

Let's say you plan to shoot a cuda in advance but fail to kill it. They can move with astounding speed in no time at all, faster than we can react. Hitting one at all once it is moving at high speed is an incredible accomplishment in the first place. Movement or a poor shot could stop you from killing it just really pissing it off. You have considerately provided a line connecting the insanely annoyed cuda to yourself. The Australian blog said to cut the line earliest. Not a good place to be within striking distance.

Moral: don't shoot barracudas and if you are trailing shot fish, sometimes things can get interesting.

http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1406135640


No need to be in the water or even spearfishing. Cudas are bringing the battle of who catches whom to you, on your boat. Seriously though, I hope 13 year old Parker heals fully and fast from this bizarre encounter.

He was fishing with his father off Port Orange, FL when he saw a barracuda near the surface. He changed his rig and cast the bait out to it. The fish took the bait and worked around the boat when his father yelled "watch out!" The five foot, 60 to 70 pound cuda had launched itself out of the water striking Parker, lacerating his arm and chest. The father tried to stop Parker's bleeding wrapping his arm in a towel. At one point he commented "Dad, I’m gonna die." His dad assured him he would be ok and worked on getting him back to shore pronto. They were about 15 to 20 miles offshore at the time and out of cell phone contact with help. The boy was transported to two hospitals for treatment. Two surgeries and 27 staples and 17 stitches later Parker is working on healing. We wish him the best in this. He said he will still go fishing, just not for barracudas.

More at:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/ar...9838?p=1&tc=pg

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http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1406137493

This has happened before and off Florida. There was another case involving a seasick 14 yr. old girl 4 miles offshore of Venice, FL in 2010. Her father was shark fishing and a 4 ft. cuda after going after his bait launched into the boat and lacerated the poor girls arm. The dad reportedly killed the cuda with a fillet knife and brought it back to shore, for ... ?


http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1406137493

The girls seems pretty traumatized and the dad seems a little too happy considering what just happened to his daughter? She must have had her 51 stitches put in after this was taken? Bizarre to say the least.

More at: http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/...tml?mode=story


Moral: when you fish for cudas you may get more than you bargained for.



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