2016 Barracuda Near Attack, looking for causes

[pepperbelly]

I'm glad I didn't read about barracuda attacks before I went on my last cruise in February.
We were diving in Cozumel and everyone else was kicking and finning all over. I was just drifting along and the fish ignored me. At one point I looked ahead and saw a 4-5' barracuda holding himself into the current directly ahead of me. I drifted to within about 3 feet of him and he just started drifting backward facing me. We were almost nose to nose for 20' or so and he got bored and swam off to the side around me.
I didn't know until this thread that it was hard to get close to them. I thought he was seeing his reflection in my mask or something and wondering why that big funny looking fish was blowing bubbles.
I would have a great pic of it my my brother had the go-pro and was looking in the other direction. Figures.

 

[scrane]

Barracuda's seem to have their own agenda. Sometimes they like to goof on you and sometimes they can't be bothered. They seem to be extremely intelligent.

 

[Dan]

I am an underwater photographer. Barracuda even large ones can be hard to approach closely enough for a good photo. Usually, they will retreat and maintain a distance. I found that if I turned an swam towards the barracuda, it quickly retreated.

I have experienced barracuda shadowing me in shallow water whilst I was snorkeling. It might just be curiosity. It might be hoping that the large strange critter will flush some prey.

Now in the seventies I was free diving on a. reef in the keys. I approached an enormous barracuda about 8'. I expected it to retreat. It did not. It flared its gills and clacked its jaws. I took that to mean " back off varmint". So I did.

In my reading, barracuda attacks are extremely rare. Humans just do not seem to be on the menu.

Personally I have never seen barracuda attacked diver / swimmer. I have seen some swam to me to as close as 3' & swam away. Also I have seen several barracudas flare their gills & opening their mouth in the cleaning station to let cleaning wrasse (Spanish hogfish in this case, as shown in the video, below) to get into their gills & mouths.

 

[azstinger11]

So on our last day in Aruba we went out to Renaissance island for a little R&R. They have two main swimming areas on their little island an adults only and a family area. The family area is much larger and has a little swim/dive platform thing that is loosely tied off. As we were snorkeling around out there, we saw about 5 barracuda with the biggest one just hanging out underneath the dive platform. We stayed out on the island for the better part of the day, and unless the combination of the sun and many many tropical drinks gave me optical illusions that barracuda stayed under the dive platform the entire time (with kids and families splashing all around). After we saw it the first time we told one of the lifeguards, who didn't seem at all concerned so we dropped it.

Here is a very crappy goPro shot of our little friend.

 

[scrane]

Years ago we would talk about a possible hazard of wearing shiny objects such as jewelry around Barracuda in murky water. I have no idea if this represents a valid concern.

 

[scott staddon]

Just to chime in I have had the same experience with a cuda. Snorkelling just off the shore in Cuba there wasn't much to see so I turned to head back and exactly as you describe a cuda started following me, just behind keeping pace with me . I too felt a little panicked at the time since I didn't see him anywhere before I turned. But since then I have been diving around a couple and they have never bothered me.

 

[NY2341]

On a night dive in Cayman Brac my buddy and I had one swim by about 25 feet in front of us. Something felt a bit odd about it. He turned towards us and just hung there second or two and now things felt even more off. I hovered up a few feet and turned my light to my chest while my buddy sank down a few feet but didn't turn his light. Like a bullet the barracuda made a run at him. It hit his hand light and shot of into the darkness. Luckily it just hit the light and not his fingers.

 

[GreggS]

My wife and I were diving the Charleston Tug out of Little River,SC recently (my 2nd time, her 1st.) Barracuda hang around there all the time. Near the end of the 2nd dive, we were hanging around the wheelhouse when I saw a cuda swimming slowly towards us. I snapped a picture of him as he approached. He kept coming until he was about a foot from my face. I tried to get turned into position to get another photo, but my tank bumped into something and apparently scared him off. He was gone in a flash (but not from the camera.)

Here's the photo I did get. It was rather murky that day, but if you look close, you can see him. At no time did I feel threatened by him.

 

[drrich2]

On a night dive in Cayman Brac my buddy and I had one swim by about 25 feet in front of us.

How dark was it? The thought of barracuda attacking things on night dives is sobering...

Richard.

 

[KevinNM]

How dark was it? The thought of barracuda attacking things on night dives is sobering...

Richard.

Doing the night pelagic dives in 2 miles of water off Kona the crew mentioned that the few times large stuff showed up it was kind of terrifying. Even just a porpoise, it comes out of nowhere and screams by. Though the cookiecutter shark one night was the one that had them most worried about an attack.