Wierd Barracuda Experience...

[cudachaser]

Sunday I was diving on the wreck "Tracy" off Ft Lauderdale. We were exploring around the bridge area when one of my bud's pointed toward the roof of the bridge and his eyes were real big...I proceed to check this out by pulling myself up to the roof and came snout to snout with a barracuda no less than 6ft. His teeth were no more than 6" from my faceplate...I gingerly lowered myself back down and swam to the back of the bridge to check him out from behind...yup he was every bit of 6ft...

Of course camera was on the boat!!!!!!

[WV Diver]

No picture no sighting.............at least that's what they always tell me.

Sounds like he wasn't going to give up any ground. I have had cuda do similar things. Where you got in his face, a friend of mine recently had one get in her face when she was diving with her father and he could hear her screaming through her reg. She was really freaked but she handled it and all was well.

Cudas are cool, demand and deserve respect.

[H20newbie]

Yikes! Better you than me. I just dove the Tracy in Ft. Lauderdale a couple of weeks ago. That would be one scary experience!

[Formerly 45yroldNewbie]

Okay now for an obvious newbie question. I have read several threads here and elsewhere about interactions with and sightings of 'cudas. I am having a hard time really figuring out if they are a danger or more of an annoyance. Will a cuda attack? Do they just like to look tough toward divers and don't really pose a theat?

When I was 18 I went on vacation to a resort in Jamaica and decided to try snorkling from the nude beach. I didn't see much except for a few urchins that were pretty cool until I looked up and saw a cuda staring at me. I FREAKED and couldn't get back to shore fast enough the whole time hoping that that fish didn't like worms like the fish in the rivers and lakes in Illinois do!!!

[Kidder]

I Think that cudas are more interested in fish then us. Has anyone ever heard of any one be attacked by one really?? When I did a discover scuba dive in Australia. One of the places we went to had a huge school. They just sorta hung out swiming in a circle. It was amazing.

[BuzzGA]

I've had similar experiences on wrecks in S. Florida and also seen schools of 'cuda just on the edge of visibility. I don't care whether or not they do attack, anything that big with that many teeth gets my respect and when I see one a wreck I always keep an eye on them...though I admit the big ones are pretty cool to look at

[Charlotte Smith]

I want to get that close to one of them like I want to get close to the snakes in lake Norfork..... NOT.....

[DivingsInMyBlood]

Originally Posted by Kidder

I Think that cudas are more interested in fish then us. Has anyone ever heard of any one be attacked by one really?? When I did a discover scuba dive in Australia. One of the places we went to had a huge school. They just sorta hung out swiming in a circle. It was amazing.

i forget where i read it, but i think 2 people have been killed by cuda attacks that have been recorded.

[RECDiver]

While night diving at Eden Rocks on Grand Cayman in July, my youngest son and I were diving and saw a large barracuda (5-5 1/2 feet) at about 10 feet under the surface follow a southern stinnet and had it's snout right in the v of the stinnets tail. Then the barracuda kicked into high gear and bit the stinnet in two, then finished off what was left. We kept an eye on him until he left.

[diversteve]

I've had several "weird" cuda experiences.

A couple years ago I was in the BVI's in the middle of a school of baitfish filming as they flexed around me. I saw a barracuda about 60' away. A few seconds later I see the DM urgently signaling me to look the other way. I look to see that the barracuda has moved to about 3' to my left. So I bring the camera up and film him as we do 2 360' revolutions before he hits a baitfish and zips away. He looked interested in my shiny video housing briefly also.

Last spring in Curacao I saw the "resident" barracuda at Habitat as I was using up my air filming flounder in the shallows. So I followed him under their boat dock and realize that I'm now in about 4' of water in an enclosed space with him. We just eyed each other for a few seconds before I got out of there. I think he moves in there after they moor the boats offshore.

A DM in Cayman told us he used to have a shiny craftsman wrench that he used as a tank banger. Until one day something tore it from his grip mid-bang. He didn't see what took it but there were cuda nearby.

My buddy shot these guys hanging around Big Hole on our Cay Sal trip last summer. Just chillin' with their friends. (dinner?) Some dives there'd be one or two hovering in the shadows under the boat. I slowly moved up on one to film it, but he never let me get within 20'.