[No Misses]

Here is a spearfishing story from 2005. It was a closer call than we realized at the time. Could this have been avoided? Absa-freakin-lutely!

This is the Dive that makes you glad to be alive. It started like any other dive. Visibility was ~30 feet. Jim spotted a 20-30 lb Black grouper. He got a good hit on it but the spear pulled out. This left the grouper with a large white spot in his back, directly behind the head. Jim lost sight of the fish in the ensuing silt cloud. I was able to stay high and follow the grouper as he fled. If it was not for the white spot / wound in his back, I would have lost him completely. I followed that distant white spot until it disappeared under a rock. I hovered over the grouper's new hiding spot, while I waited for Jim to catch up. When we both descended on the rock, the grouper started freaking out. He kicked up a huge silt cloud. There was no way to see him or shoot him. Jim went in with both arms up to his shoulders. I could tell by the amount of kicking and flailing that he was getting his hands on the fish. After what seemed like forever, but was probably less than a minute, Jim backed out of the hole to regroup and relax. Since I had a long sleeve wetsuit, I decided to try my skills at extracting a "pissed off" grouper form his hole. I reached both arms under the coral head. After some fumbling around I realized that I had a fish tail in each hand. What the heck it going on here? There were two grouper in this hole! I decided to concentrate all of my efforts on the largest tail. After much twisting and pulling, I was gaining ground and the grouper was coming out. While holding his tail in my right hand, I tried to slide my left up the fish's body until I could get a hold of his gills. Before I could accomplish this, he gave a mighty flip with his tail and pulled out of my hands. He went straight into Jim's face. He knocked off Jim's regulator and mask. I did not notice any of that (great dive partner. Don't tell PADI). I had my own problems to deal with. I was breathing way too fast. To top it off, Jim kicked me in the face while getting his arms around the fish and now my regulator was someplace other than my mouth. I found my reg and cleared my flooded mask. Even in his newly handicapped state, Jim was able to get the fish in a bear hug. Knowing that Jim did not yet have 100% control of the fish, I jammed my hand into its gills and clamped shut. I had him now. There was no way he was getting away. Jim let go of the fish and I swam to the bottom and lay there and regroup. I had to get my breathing under control. I closed my eyes and made a conscious effort to relax. Luckily, Larry was nearby shooting mutton snappers that were attracted to the commotion. He saw all of this and came to our aid. He grabbed Jim by the arm and led him to his lost mask. After verifying that Jim was OK, Larry saw me lying face down on the bottom. He thought that I had passed out. He grabbed my arm and brought me over to where Jim was waiting. We proceeded to the surface with Larry maintaining the proper accent rate. It was freaking him out that I kept closing my eyes. But, that was the only way I could concentrate on slowing my breathing. He would shake me and I would signal that I was OK. I was still breathing way too fast and knew that I needed to get it under control. Half way to the surface Larry ran his stringer through the fish's mouth. I finally let go my death grip on his gills. By the time that we reached our 15 ft safety stop, I had my breathing under control. After the recommended 3 minute stop, we surfaced. What a great feeling of relief. We were shaken, but jubilant.

Facts:
1. Overbreathing your reg @ 74 fsw is stressful.
2. Loosing you mask and reg @ 74 fsw while breathing hard is stressful.
3. Knowing that you are running low on air, have lost your mask, and can not see your depth gauge or air remaining (due to lost mask) is stressful.
4. No fish is worth your life.