Severe Barracuda Attack

[ricki]

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

[ARCSrule]

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

[admin]

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.

[MrBill]

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.

[ricki]

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.

[ricki]

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://www.whitsundaytimes.com.au/ne...l-bay/2088431/









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.

[ricki]

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.