Fishing Forum

Man on charter fishing boat gets bitten by barracuda

The Associated Press - TYBEE ISLAND, Ga.
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A 65-year-old man on a fishing trip along the Georgia coast was injured Wednesday when a 30-pound barracuda jumped into his boat.
Ziggy Zablotny was aboard a charter fishing boat about three miles off Tybee Island when the fish bit him, according to the Coast Guard.
"They were fishing for Spanish mackerel and had stopped the boat to re-adjust the lines when this fish jumped over 30 feet from the water into the salon and hit this guy in the hand," said Judy Helmey, owner of Miss Judy Charters. "It broke his hand and cut his finger really badly."
One of the adults on board contacted the Coast Guard and reported that Zablotny was bleeding heavily as a result of the bite. Zablotny was taken by ambulance to Memorial Health University Medical Center.
"We see them jumping all the time, but you never see them jump straight into the boat," Helmey said. "It didn't have a hook in it or anything pulling it in. He was sailing like he had wings."
Peter Fischel, a marine biologist at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, said that barracudas are not usually aggressive toward humans.
"It's quite a myth that they go out and attack people," Fischel said. "Generally, it's a mistake by the fish when they bite someone."[/size][/#000000][/font]
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So did the fish stay in the boat? Barracuda is mighty fine eatin'. Poor guy.
Anthony
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[url "javascript: addTag('cool')"][cool][/url][blue]While it is true that barracuda are tasty, it is also true that it can be dangerous to eat the great barracuda of southeastern waters. They are widely known for having concentrations of "ciguatera", a fish toxin, in their flesh. The larger the fish, the greater the concentration.[/blue]
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[#0000ff]They accumulate this over several years by eating other reef fishes with minute amounts in their flesh. It gradually builds up in the top predator's flesh and they become deadly to eat.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As far as I know, this has never been a problem with the popular (and smaller) Pacific barracuda, off the California coast. Used to catch and eat a lot of them myself. They are especially good smoked.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I'm betting that the victim of that encounter was not looking at the barracuda as an invited guest for the evening meal.[/#0000ff]
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Right on Tubedude, forgot about that, where I was catchin' em' there wasn't any reefs so I didn't have to worry. In hawaii we caught a fish, and thats the first time I heard about ciguatera and some guy told us that we would have to buy a test kit to see whether or not it had it, and the test kit was like thirteen bucks! So we told em' to use it for bait on the marlins.
Anthony
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Hey TD, have you "jumped" from Arizona to Utah yet?
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[url "javascript: addTag('cool')"][cool][/url][#0000ff]Hey, Bro, I ain't doin' much jumpin' these days. Still packin' boxes and carryin' furniture downstairs getting ready for the truck on the 27th of this month. Should be delivered and unpacked by the end of the first week of August. Then I will need at least two months of fishing to rest up.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I'm too old for this stuff.[/#0000ff]
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Barracudas and kingfish both have the tendency to skyrocket out of the water especially in the summer months!They are dangerous to eat though .Ciguaterra is something you never ever want to experince in your life!I had a friend in miami get ciguaterra poisining and she had it for months!Cudas are just about everywhere this time of year.Mrs.ocean can confirm this! We went out on a fishing trip and everywhere we went the cudas were taking our fish.Only thing that would come up were heads and half eaten bodies. This one guy next to her caught a cuda but she didnt notice him fighting his fish cause she was concentrating on her line by jigging.Then the mate gaffs this 4ft cuda and she didnt see him pulling it up.All of a sudden she turns and looks at it bouncing on the floor and i have never seen a person jump so high in my life!That year there were about 10 cuda attacks on people and all by skyrocketing cudas and thats why she was so freaked out!
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Ouch, that's gotta hurt. I hope they kept it after all this[url "javascript: addTag('')"][][/url]
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