Scuba Diver Pulled Down 300 Feet Below by Giant Tuna

[gypsyjim]

Imagine what kind of wild stories the Tuna was telling his buddies about the one that got away!

Only in the tuna's version, the diver was 12' tall, and dragged the fighting tuna clear up to the surface, before he escaped.

 

[Shasta_man]

Studly would be jumping in with a loin cloth and a knife, with all the fish being equipped like sharks. Using a speargun, no. Going to 200 feet to hang out gets big kudos though.

 

[Scuba Dive Asia]

Crazy story!

 

[RendoStuart]

As a rule it's not illegal to Spearfish in the Philippines. You can spearfish where any fisherman can catch fish. There are "no fish zones" or fish sanctuaries...fishing of any sort is illegal in these areas. It is respected by all most of the time.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Shooting tuna on scuba won't make landing the fish any easier. If anything it's far more dangerous than free diving using a breakaway system with multiple floaters, like Terry and others did when shooting monster fish.

Uh, why not use detachable heads & floaters on SCUBA? We always did.

Even better, a few years ago I ran into a fellow down in Miami who'd had a spearfishing float/sea anchor made for him by Carter (the lift bag folks). The device lived in a canister about the size of a tennis ball can attached to his spear gun. If he shot a big fish and didn't stone it, when the fish bolted it yanked the sea anchor out of its canister, activating a CO₂ cartridge that inflated the sea anchor into its umbrella shape and also provided about 20 pounds lift, which, of course, would wear the fish out in short order and drag it to the surface for pickup.
Neat.
Rick

 

[RendoStuart]

Spear-fisher's Guide:

1. Only Spear the Fish you intend to eat
2. A fish that is uncaught remains a fishy tail
3. Your Safety is more important than the thrill of the hunt, the fish, or your gun
4. Never Hit anything larger than the boat

 

[The Chairman]

Are we certain that the guy was spear fishing? It's not mentioned in the article, I don't believe.

 

[RendoStuart]

Arguments for Spearfishing:
1. If a fisherman can catch fish, why can't you?
2. A spear-fisher catches less fish in his lifetime than a fisherman in a single haul
3. A spear-fisher selects a fish and attempts to catch it, a fisherman catches then selects the fish
4. Wild Fish is better for your health than Farm-cultured Fish as the latter are like your sick inorganic chickens fed with feeds that they were not designed by nature to eat.
5. Most if not all eat fish (fillet-o-fish, sardines, bangus, tilapia, salmon, halibut, sea bass) yet frown when somebody hunts for them.
6. Fish don't grow from trees. You have to catch them before you can eat them.
7. Just because they are fun to watch and to have pictures with doesn't mean they are not edible food.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

Are we certain that the guy was spear fishing? It's not mentioned in the article, I don't believe.

It is mentioned in this follow-up article, which also provides ample opportunities to learn lessons about this incident.

Diver pulled down by giant tuna in stable condition | The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online

MANILA, Philippines — A few days after being pulled-down 300 feet below sea surface by a giant tuna along the waters off Kiamba in Sarangani, the condition of pleasure diver Ramir Te slightly improves as he continues to undergo decompression treatment in a hyperbaric chamber inside a Philippine Coast Guard vessel based in Cebu City.

Lt. Junior-Grade Rommel Mendoza, deputy director of the Coast Guard Action Center (CGAC) in Manila, said that although Te is still partially paralyzed in the lower part of the body, his condition was remarkably improved based on the assessment made by the PCG hyperbaric physician onboard BRP-San Juan (SARV-001) as he regularly received treatment inside the hyperbaric chamber of the vessel.

“Mr. Te is still temporarily half paralyzed due to the unfortunate incident where he was pulled down below 300 feet by a giant tuna approximately more than 50 kilograms in weight,” Mendoza said.

Te was later airlifted by a Philippine Air Force (PAF) helicopter to Cagayan de Oro City and the same day brought the victim in the PCG vessel.

The CGAC investigation revealed that Te, a professional and seasoned pleasure diver was participating in a fishing competition that time wherein they need to catch a big tuna fish for them to win the contest. Lt. JG. Mendoza revealed that when Te was around 80-ft below the sea surface, he spotted a giant tuna and immediately aim the creature using a spear bow with rope.

Mendoza explained that after Te hitting the big catch, he placed the rope around his waist but he did not noticed that the creature was still alive and he was pulled down below few seconds later.

“When he was pulled-down he decided to cut the rope around his waist and activated his buoyancy compensator device (BCD) around his chest to immediately ascend to the surface. The bad thing there is that he wasn’t able to decompress,” Mendoza said.

Decompression stop is procedure for the divers wherein he must spend at a constant depth in shallow water at the end of a dive to safely eliminate absorbed inert gases from the diver's body.

Mendoza noted by not doing this procedure properly, the divers may suffer several “diving sickness” such as numbness which can cause permanent paralysis.

PCG hyperbaric doctor Lt. Commander Eric Guieb is regularly monitoring the condition of the victim who was transferred to the Chiong Hua Hospital in Cebu City.

 

[The Chairman]

It is mentioned in this follow-up article, which also provides ample opportunities to learn lessons about this incident.

:shocked2:

Thanks for the follow up.