barracuda attack august 5

[Hank49]

It will be interesting to hear (1) if its true, and (2) if true, was he wearing any jewelry. I was diving in Palua with a school of literally hundreds of Chevron Barracuda ALL around me and didn't have any problems.

I've dived with Chevron schools in three different sites in Southeast Asia, with a silver earring and, like you said, had no problems. But these Great Barracuda here in the Caribbean are different. A Belizean I work with says that there are reported attacks here in the south but not in San Pedro area. If so it's probably because of the better visibility there.
I do know of a guy in the Philippines who had half his calf muscle bitten off by one in a fish trap. I guess that one was just angry.
I was looking for conch one day and all of a sudden there were about 15, 4-5 footers surrounding me. Lucky the boat was near. It was a bit tense. If they had wanted to, they could have turned me into a skeleton in about a minute. The sneaky fricken' things....you look at one bunch and they back off but the ones behind have moved in closer.......

 

[geraldp]

I was snorkeling at coz last ...

I was not concerned really, except that I had Chrome fingernail polish on my toes. I was digging my toes into the sand whenever possible because I swear, he was stalking me! I just knew he thought my silvery toes were some of those little fish that could not move as fast as the rest.

:rofl:

 

[teamheatwave]

We were diving off Isla Mujeres back in May and had about a 2-1/2-3' barracuda sort of shadowing me. Nothing overly aggressive and although they have been present at many other dives I have been on, something about this one made me uncomfortable. I don't know if it was a territorial thing but I did have my Olympus 5050 w/PT015 underwater housing which does have shiny silver buttons. Regardless of the reason, I didn't want to chance it. So we decended a bit and swam away from him keeping an eye over my shoulder as I did. We were able to surface and exit without incident.

 

[Kim]

It will be interesting to hear (1) if its true, and (2) if true, was he wearing any jewelry. I was diving in Palua with a school of literally hundreds of Chevron Barracuda ALL around me and didn't have any problems.

I've also been in the water in Venezuela with hundereds of barracuda about 3 ft above me.
Somewhere (unfortunately I don't remember exactly where) I read that if barracuda are in a shoal or group they are not dangerous. It's when you get a single one that you have to be very careful. That's how they normally hunt. I have also heard the thing about shiny jewelry or other reflections.

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

I had one which I was convinced was coming at me as described here. I put my camera up in a defensive move to ward him off, and he ended up shooting past my left side. Scared the bejeezus out of me. Afterward I saw that I hit the shutter as I raised the camera and he went racing by me.

I haven't seen any similar behavior since.

Marc

 

[jepuskar]

Man, I have heard of cuda attacks before but I was under the impression they were provoked. I have a couple of cuda stories to share:

I was snorkeling on the East side of Cozumel on a reef that was about 200yds off shore, we had this 2 foot Cuda follow us the entire time, I wasn't concerned at all..he was small and harmless...I would glance back and there he was just watching. We turned around and he moved out of the way and then got behind us...as we headed off to shore he followed for a little bit...I guess to see us off of his area.

The other story was also in Cozumel..I was diving the C-53 and as some of you know there is a room towards the south of the ship on the deck level....entrances on both sides and portholes...well I was videotaping and started to go in this entrance and all I saw was the shadow of a cuda about 4-5 feet just hanging there motionless. I gently backed out of that doorway and watched him from outside....that made me uncomfortable...I was not going in that room with him....even though exits were all around that was his room at the time.

Always respect the creatures in the water, big or small....afterall they belong there..we dont.

 

[Fly N Dive]

i think the thing about shiny stuff is most likely true, look at most fishing lures there is a reason why a lot of them are very reflective!!!

 

[derekb]

I've had many experienced divers tell me not to dive with jewelry for this exact reason. They also say that's why you should keep your arms and hands in close to your body...stuck out fingers look like small fish

 

[drbill]

Of course the "danger" posed by barracuda depend entirely on the species involved. I've never had a problem with any of them including the great barracuda, despite getting "in their face" to film them. Our Pacific barracuda are no threat- it is hard enough to get close enough to them to photograph (although one has been cooperating in the Dive Park recently). The Mexican and other schooling barracuda should not be a problem either.

I have heard stories about divers being attacked (including cudabait on this site) and about being careful diving with jewelry. I keep a gold ring on one of my fingers at all times and it has not drawn any undue attention from 'cuda that I was aware of.

Doc

 

[jlayman800]

Best wishes to Tom Goreau. Its a shame this type of thing happens once in a while.

I cant resist a baracuda story: I was diving a rig way out from Corpus Christi. We were probably 30 miles into the gulf. There were plenty of 5 and 6 foot baracuda diving with us. I was too young or stupid to be afraid and just enjoyed their company for the whole dive. A big one did spend a lot of time about 8 inches from the front of my mask. When I got back on the boat, somebody had shot a large baracuda and brought it on board. They were going to throw it over the side when I stopped them. I took it off their hands and thought it would make several great meals. The next week I took a big filet and made a big pot of fish stew for the dive club pot luck dinner. It had a strong smell but looked pretty good. When I got to the dive club and plugged in the crock pot again, the smell just kept getting stronger. The first person to take a taste actually spit the whole mouth full onto the floor. Yes, it was that bad. Very strong flavor. Recommend you don't think of them as food fish. I honestly believe that incidents with baracuda are very rare. It seems they have more to worry about us than we do about them.