Rick Brine's second scuba dive of the day, 15 metres below the surface of the turquoise Caribbean Sea, could well have been his last.
The 59 year old from Prince George narrowly escaped death after he was suddenly attacked by a large barracuda, which sank its inch-long teeth into back of Brine's head and cheek. Brine and his two dive partners had seen the barracuda minutes earlier with its mouth wide open, darting back and forth in the water off the shore of Negril, Jamaica.
"It felt like a baseball bat hitting my left temple and I thought, 'what the heck is that?'" said Brine. "It knocked my [breathing] regulator out and my mask was gone.
"II had a big pain on the back of my head. I found my regulator and got it back on my mouth and I was pretty sure I was bleeding. I saw all this green water around me and I couldn't figure out what it was. I yelled out 'Ken,' and hoped he would hear me and he turned around. When I yelled his name I lost my regulator again and started holding my breath, and I know you're not supposed to hold your breath, that's cardinal rule Number 1. Your lungs will expand as you surface and can pop."
At that point, all Brine could think about was getting to the surface. But at that depth, a rapid ascent can bring on decompression sickness, otherwise known as "the bends." Divers are trained to pause as they move closer to the surface slowly to allow time for their lungs to release dissolved gasses. The pressure of the water diminishes, the closer the diver gets to the surface.
"I was looking at the surface and I knew I was bleeding, so I thought I'll either bleed out or do risk getting the bends and get the hell up there," said Brine. "I was really confused. I remember being out of air and the surface was still another 10 or 15 feet, and I was thinking, 'Damn I didn't make it.' All of a sudden I saw the emergency regulator and put it in my mouth and shot right up to the surface."
Brine has about 20 hours of scuba diving behind him and is also an experienced kayaker and kayak instructor, which he credits with helping him to avoid panicking after he was bitten. Bleeding profusely from his head and cheek, Brine and the dive master, Ken, swam to shore and they walked through the resort restaurant to the medical clinic. It took about a half-hour for the bleeding to stop and Brine was then transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
He estimates the fish's mouth was about 10 inches wide. The upper jaw bit the back of his head and left four grooves from where the teeth raked his scalp. The lower jaw caught his cheek in a ripping motion which left a gash shaped like the letter K. The wounds in both areas each required 12 stitches to close. The doctor found a tiny tooth fragment in one of the cuts. After losing about two litres of blood, Brine was about to leave the hospital but developed a stomach ache and fainted, and spent another five hours in the emergency ward while his fluid was replaced intravenously.
Brine and his wife Allane planned the three-week trip to Jamaica to celebrate his retirement after 33 years working as an accountant for the City of Prince George on April 10. The April 26 attack happened two weeks into their trip and they both agreed to remain in Jamaica the following week. He developed a black eye after sleeping on his left side, the same side that was bitten, which was worrisome to Brine because it can be a sign of trapped gasses being released, a delayed indication of decompression sickness.
"What I was worried about most was infection inside my head," he said. "You hear a lot of horror a stories, but Allane did a good job every day and cleaned it and it ended up being OK."
Brine found out later Barracudas have a reputation as fierce predatory fish, but unprovoked attacks on humans are extremely rare. They are have been known to follow snorkelers or scuba divers but usually will not attack.
'About 10 minutes into the dive we saw a barracuda coming towards us with its mouth open the whole time and it came close enough to me that I saw its eyes," said Brine. "We all turned around and watched it veer off to the left and the dive master said, 'That's a big barracuda.'' Usually they're about six feet, but this one was seven feet in length.
"Barracudas and sharks do not like the taste of human blood, and what happens is they nip at you to see if you're on the menu, then they go away. Most sharks don''t eat people. They bite us, and that's what kills people because they're mouths are so huge."
Brine plans to return to scuba diving but says he's in no rush to return to Jamaica. Due to the rarity of his attack, Brine has been asked to fill out a report for the Professional Association Diving Instructors.
