Stingray City Barracuda Attack

[tursiops]

I just read that the great barracuda is sometimes solitary but also schools.

also there are schooling picklehandle barracuda which grow to 5 ft and live in the indo pacific where I was. Im guessing it was probably picklehandle as they were almost as long as me. except im 6 2

You are reading from a scuba magazine. My info is from a professional book...large schools of Great Barracuda are not at all commmon. The Pickhandle (not picklehandle...) is a likely candidate from what you saw. I agree.

 

[tursiops]

For the great are they generally always solo or mostly when they are full adults (say 4 ft or more).?

The Greats are solitary or a few together....small groups. Other species can have massive schools.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

The Greats are solitary or a few together....small groups. Other species can have massive schools.

these were in groups of ten two twenty individuals. and i saw a couple other groups in the distance similar. definitely not a large school of them like i see in vids and pics.

ill try to find my gopro footage. ive got like a hundred short clips so it will be an endeavor

 

[tursiops]

these were in groups of ten two twenty individuals. and i saw a couple other groups in the distance similar. definitely not a large school of them like i see in vids and pics.

ill try to find my gopro footage. ive got like a hundred short clips so it will be an endeavor

The footage will be helpful; the Great's markings are distinctive.

 

[Hank49]

I’ve had one barracuda bolt at me three times. Right at my face and it jumped out of the water. The next pass it was coming at my shoulder. The third charge, it clipped my knee and bit through my wetsuit to the bone. I went to my boat and peeled my wetsuit down....razor teeth and a lot of blood. Wrapped it up tight. My son swam up and asked what happened. I told him and he dove down and the barracuda was lying dead on the bottom. Oh yeah....I had speared it.....and the shaft passed through so the Barro could still swim. But I’ve shot.....40-50?....only this one attacked. And it was only 60 cm or so?
I closed it up with butterfly bandages.
It’s the molar, back teeth that do the damage. Razor sharp.
I’ve scuba dived with huge schools of chevron barros in the Philippines. No worries...but the Great, here in the Caribbean...

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

FishID says there are 7 species of Barracuda in the Pacific, but only 3 in the Atlantic. The ones in the Atlantic are Great, Sennet, and Guaguanche. The Great can get to 6 ft. the other two can get to 18-24 inches. The Great is typically solitary, the latter two typically school. The Great has the dark body bands, the other two do not.

Hey Tursiops...... I know that this is an old thread, but I have always been a bit curious as to what species of Cuda this is. I shot this video off of Little Cayman back in 2018...... Hard to judge underwater but my guess that it was at least 5ft....maybe more. Definitely solitary and territorial so my guess is that it was a Great...

The other interesting behavior was that it was fully vertical when I first saw it and made my approach...... I just rotated so I could get all of it into the frame....

 

[tursiops]

Hey Tursiops...... I know that this is an old thread, but I have always been a bit curious as to what species of Cuda this is. I shot this video off of Little Cayman back in 2018...... Hard to judge underwater but my guess that it was at least 5ft....maybe more. Definitely solitary and territorial so my guess is that it was a Great...

The other interesting behavior was that it was fully vertical when I first saw it and made my approach...... I just rotated so I could get all of it into the frame....

Yes, that was a Great. It was vertical to be cleaned; you can see all the little cleaner fishes around it.

 

[drrich2]

In a completely different set of circumstances, some folk were on their way out to so a night dive and one of the divers stuck his mask and whole hand in to the water to rinse his mask. He was struck then. No one was positive that it was a cuda but determined that made the most sense. He ended up in hospital in Manado and his dive trip was over before it had begun.

Some years ago, while I was on the boat at LCBR waiting for the afternoon divers to load, one of the divers went to the stern and splashed his foot around in the water to wash off the sand. There was a mighty splash and water and blood flew onto the stern. The foot washer stood with a very bloody foot.

We almost always see them near/under liveaboards.

I wonder if this is a risk that's under appreciated in our hobby, and oceanic watersports. If you ever go looking for various critters, on land or in the water, whether snakes, lizards, crabs, eels, whatever, it's a good idea to seek out some structure. Out in the unsheltered open is hazardous to prey, and has slim food pickings for predators. Both gravitate toward shelter.

On a North Carolina trip years ago, I see 2 big barracuda not far below the rigging under the dive boat. Just far enough to be out of the way and not worrisome, as they didn't both me, but scary just because they were so large. On the boat one way, watched a fisherman in a nearby boat reel a small one in.

I've seen some online reports where feeding was known or suspected as a factor driving attacks. I'm not automatically against feeding wildlife, I've participated in shark feeding dives (just as an observer of course), but I judge on a case-by-case basis, and I've come to think diver-fed barracuda are a risk based on reports.

Some of us got most of our pre-diving water experience on boats in freshwater, such as on fishing trips on lakes or rivers. If you wanted to splash with your feet, rinse something off, or just thrust your hand into the water to see how far under you could still see it, no problem.

If barracuda are drawn to boats, docks and piers (I've seen a small one by a pier), that might be a bad idea. Wonder how many fishermen gut/clean fish and toss scraps out of boats? And whether the barracuda learn to associate boats with food hitting the water?

Thanks for the heads up that maybe splashing that way isn't a good idea. Years ago I saw a video where a barracuda hit a yellow snapper and sliced it in half so smoothly it looked guillotined.

 

[chris kippax]

This incident always sticks in my mind when looking at large Barracuda.
Understandably this was this fishes reaction to being shot with a 7mm piece of steel
It is an old post so some links dont work but the graphic image still shows. under any circumstances you do not want to be bitten by a large fish.

WARNING THIS LINK CONTAINS A GRAPHIC IMAGE

"He could have bled out, we nearly lost him"

WARNING: GRAPHICS PICTURES. Adreno has received this news story from a Yeppoon, Queensland customer. They have asked that names not be included. We have posted before about the dangers associated with spearing Barracuda, but we hope these pictures and the experience of these spearos over the...

spearfishing.com.au

 

[chillyinCanada]

This incident always sticks in my mind when looking at large Barracuda.
Understandably this was this fishes reaction to being shot with a 7mm piece of steel
It is an old post so some links dont work but the graphic image still shows. under any circumstances you do not want to be bitten by a large fish.

WARNING THIS LINK CONTAINS A GRAPHIC IMAGE

"He could have bled out, we nearly lost him"

WARNING: GRAPHICS PICTURES. Adreno has received this news story from a Yeppoon, Queensland customer. They have asked that names not be included. We have posted before about the dangers associated with spearing Barracuda, but we hope these pictures and the experience of these spearos over the...

spearfishing.com.au

There's no emotion for my reaction to this article.