I wear a RBFK on my left inner calf (That's R for Really), a small one on my BC and two line cutters on my person. Getting tangled by old rope or fishing line is one thing but my personal terror is getting snagged with a hook by an enthusiastic fisherman.
In the early seventies, I was about sixteen and certified in Europe and had my NAUI cert. I was out with the club on the big boat with a bunch of military diver type people. My girlfriend partner and I were on a good reef cruising along when we heard the emergency signal. (A piece of pipe hanging in the water hit with a hammer) Different hit patterns meant different things. Seas picking up, wind, dragging anchor, etc. This was just continuous frantic hammering and pretty obviously meant death, destruction, Pirates, help us, Holy Crap, etc.
We surfaced and swam to the platform on the back of the boat. When I stood up and was able to see into the back of the boat, I was stunned. A man was face down on the deck with several people working on his leg. Then I saw it. All of the men on that boat except for me were military and most of them were Special Forces. They might have been used to it but I wasn't. I didn't get "sea sick" but it was a close thing. That mans calf was opened to the bone, literally, from his ankle to his knee. There was blood everywhere, on the deck and on the people working on him.
The boat Captain was on the radio with the Coast Guard and everybody else was working on the guy or getting the boat ready to go. My partner aka girlfriend grabbed the clipboard and started doing a headcount so I helped her and stayed out of the way. A Coasty Cutter was not far away so they met us on the way back in and transferred the injured guy to their ship. It was lots faster than our old converted shrimper. Two Coast Guard men stayed on our boat and got the story of the injury. I thought it odd that they stayed there with us but then I realized it was a crime scene and they were official Investigators! (I got the whole story as it was being told to them)
Our boat Captain was relaxing on the bridge when some divers who were not down yelled about a Charter fishing boat getting to close. They blew the horn, waved flags, yelled, etc. Yes, two big Diver Down flags were flying from our boat. They had several fishermen trolling from the stern. They yelled back and were laughing, waving their beers around. They appeared to all be drunk, even the man driving the Charter boat. Then they started running close circles around our boat. The problem with that, was that now their trolling lures are no longer going fast enough so they start dragging along the bottom...over the divers. Our boat Captain blew off several rounds from the shark shotgun and they left the area.
Meantime on the bottom a hundred plus feet down, a diver is paddling along with his partner when his partner is suddenly yanked backwards and up. Later, the victim stated that he thought a big shark had him by the leg. He finally managed to get to his knife and swiped at "whatever it was that was eating my leg". He cut the line after a few tries. When he got the surface, he popped his cartridge in his BC and a flare. Two divers on their way back to the boat saw him and drug him in. He almost bled to death. The lure was still hanging in the back of his leg. It hooked him just above the ankle and ripped his leg open until it got to the knee.
The Coast Guard busted the Charter boat Captain and took his license. I went out the next day and bought two more knifes to strap onto my diving gear. Those nifty little line cutters that we all have now where not around back then or I would have bought eight or nine of them. I was traumatized! That leg was wide open with all of the pieces and parts and bones and such were just hanging out. The man whose leg was ripped open was diving again a few months later with a huge scar and a mounted trolling lure. He had a bunch of new knifes hanging off of him too.
