Black sea bass with shark bite?

[vistasbelow]

I saw a giant black sea bass with what appears to be a shark bite on his back. the injury is on both sides and is quite severe. please click on the link to view the image and tell me what you think. Sorry about the image quality, I was with paying customers so I did not want to take too much time to set up the shots.

gsb_shark_bite

 

[drbill]

Wow... that wasn't the image I had expected from the comments by you and Tim M. yesterday at the park. Hard to tell from the pictures so I guess I'll just have to do a day dive or two and find this one.

The GSB I saw at Long Point with what appeared to be a bite mark from a GWS was more circular in appearance than the one yours shows.

Sad to see how many of these magnificent fish show injuries.

Were you aware that one of our local anglers observed a GWS take and eat a GSB last summer or the summer before?

 

[vistasbelow]

I did not hear that story but it seems like the white sharks would consider the black sea bass a quality meal.

I hope I can go get better photo's of this one today, I think I had my camera set to macro. I would like to get a close up of the injury on each side next time.

 

[Sand Dollar Charters]

Props from two outboard motors.

 

[on_two_wheels]

I agree....doesn't seem to be a bite and definitely looks like the aforementioned suggestion. Glad it was surviving. Hopefully it continues to for a long time. Dr Bill is the resident expert so I think he should give this guy a nickname so we can all report back if/when we see it.

 

[Teamcasa]

Props from two outboard motors.

That's what it looks like to me as well.

 

[vistasbelow]

That was my initial thought when I only saw one side, but when I saw it was on both sides I thought otherwise. Now on closer examination it looks like boat prop. I hope the fish heals well and lives on.

by the way, when I first saw the fish about a week or so ago, his right side was much more open and looked really bad, now it appears to be closing up so it is on the mend.

 

[cmburch]

I don't know. It looks like something grabbed onto both sides? Pulled and teared from the top? Massive injury. Hope it recovers.

 

[drbill]

Tim, I did see some video footage of it yesterday and a few more stills and the injury on the left side does look like a shark bite. Of course I haven't seen this fish personally (and doubt I will since I'm only diving at night this time of year).