Hey Dad Let's Feed The Barracuda

Lighting Fast Predators - Not To Be Taken Lightly

I was able to watch some great footage yesterday on the Barracuda. Featuring the Big Boys of 4 to 5 ft long, mouth bristling with teeth and moving at attack speeds of 0 - 35 mph in the first sweep of their tails. Very impressive if I do say so myself.

There was a bit of background such as I shared above, but the highlights of the short airing, was an attack by a Barracuda of 5 feet in length on a lady who scrapes boat bottoms for a living. It turns out that it happened on a highly sunlit day where any movement by a knife or scraper blade shimmered like a prey fish. The lady in question was carrying a scraper with handle in hand and the blade giving off brilliant flashes of silver was it dangled beneath the diver.

It seems that she paused for a moment to scrape something when she felt a solid hit in the right shoulder and biceps area. Yup, it was our old friend the Barracuda, estimated at about 5 feet (she carried his stuffed body everywhere - beats scraping boats!). It happened so fast that she never knew what happened until after it was over. The giant fish, sensing immediately that she was not a prey item disengaged, but not until her adversary had slammed those formidable teeth into her arm at about 35 mph!

Now 35 mph didn't sound like it was that fast until some grizzled dive boat veteran got in the water and fed the schools of Barracuda that cruised in at their normal arrival time. This guy would shake small fish in the water and huge specimens - just suspended at a standstill would wheel, turn and take the fish from his fingers at such speed that they had passed him already before it sank in - just how fast these fish are - and proved that they are nothing to be taken lightly. Again and again it was repeated until I could make out the turn - the tail thrust and finally flashed past the man's fingers. I had to see this several times to believe it. I think it's that they reach top speed in one push of the tail that makes them so damn fast. The boat Captain who had laughed as he spun Barracuda yarns, mentioned that you have to be careful or they'll get a piece of you, got out after the dive and demonstration - only to display a torn up hand with several gaping wounds in it. Had to be the camera jitters ay? He proceed to rub his finger over what was left of his feeding hand, stopping every 1/2 inch or so to give an account of how he got nailed and moved along to the next scar. And here I was thinking he was just working the crowd up but he wasn't, he was just preparing us for the show we were about to see.

Best methods to avoid attack is to avoid shiny objects when they're around and about, avoid murky water where they are reported to hang out and not to dive in the dawn and dusk periods - also a no-no for avoiding shark attacks. For those who think that Barracuda are just some ferocious window dressing - guess again and unless you're very experienced around Barracuda - then get out of the water!