Posted on 06/11/2005 4:01:26 PM PDT by jsh3180
When jewfish attack
By David Ball dball@keynoter.com
The gentle giants are normally docile, but this particular one had attitude
"It was just so fast. I just seen him turn, and then I just saw a bunch of bubbles and blood," local diver Bob Charles, 45, said after he was attacked Tuesday while spearfishing in Florida Bay.
"I didn't realize my head was in his mouth until I was on the way to the hospital, and I saw the blood on top of my head," Charles continued.
But the Cudjoe Key man's worst injury was his bruised and partially lacerated lip that required four stitches to mend.
This undersea horror was the result of a run-in with a fish not normally known for its aggressiveness - the jewfish.
About 3:30 p.m., Charles and friend Larry Durm were spearing mangrove snapper in about 30 feet of water nine miles off Bay Point in the Lower Keys.
After only 15 minutes in the water, Charles had speared two snapper. But he was more interested in the peculiar behavior of a nearby jewfish, also known as a Goliath grouper because of its resemblance to the popular food fish and its ability to grow to enormous sizes of up to 900 pounds and reach lengths of 8 feet.
The state banned the capture of jewfish in 1990 because of rapidly depleting numbers, so Charles had no interest in the fish, and he said he did nothing to provoke an attack.
"I'd seen many other jewfish out there before, but they acted normal. If you approached them, they kinda moved away," Charles said.
"But this guy was weird. We was right next to me, like, 3 or 4 feet away, the whole time I was there," he said. "He was making this thudding noise they do, then all of a sudden he turned and hit me."
The jewfish, which Charles estimated was about 100 pounds and 4 feet long, apparently bit most of Charles' face, ripping off his mask and pulling the scuba regulator out of his mouth.
When he got back to the boat, his top lip was bleeding profusely.
"I got off easy. He could've easily taken my lip off and peeled my face back," Charles admitted. "If he was a 200- or 300-pounder, he could've easily killed me."
Charles immediately applied some ice to the cut, while Durm suited up and went to retrieve his mask and speargun. The jewfish was gone, and the speared fish were undisturbed.
They began the 45-minute trek back into shore with Charles keeping ice on his lip, which he said didn't hurt at first. He even took a shower before his wife drove him north to Fishermen's Hospital.
But as the shock wore off and the stitches were applied, the pain began.
"They didn't give me any pain killers, so I had to take some of my own," he said. "I also have a little fever now, so they should've given me antibiotics."
Today, Charles is in good condition, despite some remaining tenderness in his lip, a slightly loose tooth and some confusion about why he was attacked in the first place.
"Jewfish are normally pretty docile animals, and he wasn't interested in fish," Charles said. "I guess I was in his territory, and he just wanted me out."
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Community Relations Officer Steve Acton said he has never heard of any other jewfish attacks, just "the horror stories I heard growing up in Key West of jewfish as big as a Volkswagen swallowing people whole."
Charles said the attack won't make him more apprehensive the next time he encounters a jewfish - but it did make he rethink the current no-take laws on the species.
"Their numbers are getting out of control. I think they should open a two-day season on jewfish," Charles said. "They protect them, but what about us?"
Copyright © 2005, Keynoter Publishing Company Inc. All rights reserved.
For some reason, that link bounces me to Google.
Dan
I noticed that... they must have stopped allowing hotlinks. Hmmmm... I'll have to find it again and post it for you.
lol
Thanks, no need; I did one of them there fancy Google searches (shark site:www.m90.org) and found it.
Golly, what a bunch of pinheads.
Dan
That guy deserved to be bitten. He's lucky he didn't loose a finger.
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