I don't need that ...
 

Kent told me about the following account that I somehow missed. It is a sad tale with a readily avoidable outcome.

http://www.reeflighttackle.com/i/Mor...ewfish_opt.jpg
A Goliath Grouper (previously known for a very long time before the present as a Jewfish)

"Fish Kills Spear-Fishing Diver
Reuters
MIAMI (Sept. 12) - 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 Monday.

The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 25 feet of water off the lower Florida Keys 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."

***


These fish in larger sizes have actually inhaled divers! They don't have much in the way of teeth however. Most of the really big ones in frequented waters were taken decades ago to where being a Jewfish palate cleaner is a rare if not unheard of event these days.

IF this diver had been carrying a knife he likely wouldn't have died. Choices. Wonder what is more likely, a guy getting pinned underwater by a speared big fish or someone getting wrapped in some of four lines totally over 250 ft. flapping around overhead or potentially pooling around them in the water relaunching or just getting barreled by a wave?


Hook knives anyone?
http://www.pbkiteboarding.com/gear/n...hook_knife.jpg

More about being prepared can mean in - TANGLED IN KITE LINES, DRAGGED UW BY KITE IN 15 FT. WAVES

at: http://fksa.org/viewforum.php?f=81

http://www.mexfish.com/fish/jewfish/jfishjaken.jpg

I left something out, Skyway Scott caught it. Spearing Jewfish, Goliath Grouper is illegal in Florida*. I quit spearfishing when I was 16 and am largely oblivious of current regulations. Thanks for setting me straight on this.

I can recall diving John Pennekamp State Park when I was 15 and seeing Jewfish and large grouper all over the place within the preserve. They really didn't mind divers all that much either, you could almost touch them at times. Poachers cleaned them out in successive years though, a big loss for all of us.

Choices, some have bigger ramifications than others.


* http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/edu/spea...g_brochure.pdf