Posted on 09/11/2006 10:23:04 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida diver shot a large grouper with a spear gun then apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said on Monday.
The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 25 feet (7.5 metres) of water off the lower Florida Keys on Saturday and speared a Goliath Grouper, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Mark Coleman said.
"It looks like the fish wrapped the line attached to the spear around the victim's wrist. The fish then went into a hole in a coral rock, effectively pinning the man to the bottom of the ocean," Coleman said in a news release.
Police divers found the speared fish tightly wedged into the hole, with the man's body still tangled in the line, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Goliath Grouper are the largest members of the sea bass family and can weigh hundreds of pounds.
sometimes you eat the bear
sometimes the bear eat you
Jim Croce
This time Goliath slew David.
That'd be kind of difficult, wouldn't it? I mean, for a saltwater fish to be stocked into a freshwater lake. They're not even anadromous.
A friend of mine, let's call him Chuck, who is somewhat crazy, tells this story. Knowing him I believe it!
One day, Chuck was out diving with friends off Davenport, about half way between Half Moon Bay, and Santa Cruz CA.
He was swimming along, minding his own business, trying out his new $80 flippers. A seal grabbed one of his flippers. Annoyed, he kicked his foot up to shake the seal loose. This flipped HIM up under what he describes as a boxcar with fins. His "seal" was a Great White Shark!
The shark didn't like the taste of rubber and spit out the fin. He boosted for the surface stuck his head up and said "HELP!" Head back down, look for shark. Head up: "SHARK!" At this point he sees everybody on the boat franticly running to and fro. He and the boat manage to get together.
Later he found out that some local fishermen were in the habit of cleaning their catch in that area.
Soooo, the shark came up beside the boat looking for a handout. Finding none it then swam off in his direction. His friends said it was as long as the boat, 12 feet.
OK, now fast forward a month and a half. Chuck is visiting friends in San Diego, They go out for a dive. There are Basking Sharks, a harmless filter feeder, in the area. So his friend who knows about the earlier dive says, "Hey, Chuck! Wanna swim with the sharks?"
Slow Learner Chuck says "Sure!"
Soon, he's in the water. He sticks his head up and can see the dorsal fin of a shark approaching him. Oh goody! Dunks his head and looks. The water is too murky. Head up. Fin still coming. Head down, too murky. Then...
Out of the gloom a mouth "big enough for me to stand up in in any direction" suddenly appears.
His friend says it was the funniest thing he ever saw. Chuck came straight up out of the water, walked 10 feet across the surface and sank back down...
that's a shark tale!
Oh. I thought for sure the San Diego shark was gonna have the NoCal $80 swim flipper in his mouth, stuck in his teeth. *oh well*
That would have been a nice touch...
As Ann Coulter says, "It's just not as much fun to hunt when the rabbit has a gun, too."
Thing is, once these fish get this big they are hardly fit to eat anyway
Saw one at a marina in FL about 20 years ago - fisherman told us that Long John Silvers and the like buy these kinds of fish. (I'm not kidding).
I got to thinking about that after I posted. I was thinking of the Nile perch. They also grow very large.
Darfin Award?
"I have done a lot of killing in my life, because it needed doing, but, never in my adult life, just because I could. It isn't hard to kill, but it is a permanent thing, best taken seriously."
Amen, brother...
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