barracudas harmful?

[kensuguro]

I just saw it on Animal Planet.. I think they were out diving in Florida Keys. But that aside, it was a segment showing the Barracuda as a very fast swimmer, and a dangerous hunter. The guiding diver actually got bit from feeding the barracuda.

Okay, so that's TV. I was just surprised to see the barracudas being portrayed that way. I'm a local Miami diver and I see barracudas big and small, all the time, and they're very calm and gentle. As far as I've seen anyway.. I've never seen them make sudden movements, or show any sign of aggression.

Well, I'm no scientist, but it just seems awkward that barracudas would be portrayed as something harmful. Should I be watching out for them? Or is it just bogus TV like always?

 

[H2Andy]

barracudas are basically dangerous if:

1. there's a bleeding fish near you and they go for the fish but get you instead

2. there's very low vis and they mistake you for prey.


so... if you avoid being in the water with fish guts and low-vis situations,
you'll be ok

i love barracudas. they're like big dogs, very curious. they come around just
to check you out. i love it. you can't be in the water in Florida and not have
a few barracudas around (though you may not know it)

 

[Jcsgt]

I agree with H2Andy. Barracudas have gotten a bad rap, over the years. Just as with any wild marine life, we divers have to use common sense in interacting with them.

I dived the Duane, last year, off of Key Largo. While we were hanging on the mooring line for our safety stop, we saw a massive school of large cuda's in a circle around us. I stopped counting at 50. Too cool!!!!

 

[Guba]

Many of my ocean dives are on the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico and we have a very healthy barracuda population. They've actually learned to associate the liveaboards as potential food sources, since table scraps (once they have been sorted into those that can be disposed of at sea and chopped to the requisite size) are routinely tossed just before the boat moves to another location. Therefore, the barracuda hang out right below the boat the entire time we're moored on the site. Divers have to descend through a virtual cloud of the big boys, and they follow us around like puppies. Only once did I have an unnerving experience with one. As I was hanging for my safety stop, one staked me out at a range of about four feet and seemed to be following my every movement carefully. I started looking to see what it was that had the fish so entranced and finally realized that my camera had a bright, shiney lexan case that sparkled from its position on my chest. I covered the camera with my gloved hands, and the barracuda lost interest and wandered off.
We did, however, learn to be careful with our lights on night dives. My partner was attempting to show me a particular little fish just above the reef. There was a flash of silver from over my shoulder (I could feel the sudden wash as something practically zoomed by my ear) and the little fish was gone. My partner's light had blinded the fish, and an opportunistic 'cuda took it in a microsecond. Gotta give them this...they have learned how to make the most of being visited by divers. Other than that, they're fascinating and appear to be comepletely docile. Any injury from a barracuda I would attribute solely to a case of mistaken identity. They are, however, still apex predators and should be treated accordingly.

 

[Diver Dennis]

It's a good idea not to be wearing too much shiny stuff too.

 

[DandyDon]

It's a good idea not to be wearing too much shiny stuff too.

Don't want to remind them of the flashy fish they call food.

And when I'm diving a Keys wreck, then come across a LARGE one in my way, I go around.

 

[Lukiedukie]

please read post number 8 by Cudabait

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=135449

 

[DandyDon]

please read post number 8 by Cudabait

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=135449

Yep, that's how he got his name. Heard the story from the resort owner in Utila, too. A very rare accident, but certainly possible.

 

[rickydazla]

One of the local boys at the resort I work at here in Fiji got his arm torn up pretty bad by a big barracuda... He caught it on a handline. Serves the little pr!ck right.

I've dived with thousands of barracudas of all different sizes and in schools of varying numbers with absolutely no behaviour that could be categorized as anything more than curious. I love them, they're my favourite fish.

 

[drbill]

Never had a problem diving with either the great barracuda or various species of schooling barracuda. I don't wear bling and don't spearfish so those potentrial attractants aren't a factor. The only time I might put myself in "danger" is when I open my mouth and expose those gold crowns!

Seriously, I have never had reason to worry about 'cudas... maybe because I don't eat them due to potential ciguaterra poisoning.