The Risks of Spear Fishing - Not what you'd expect

Here is an unusual one but a good warning for all those young spear fishermen/women and I couldn't help but highlight this article.


Fish kills spear-fishing diver

From correspondents in Miami

September 12, 2006 06:01am
Article from: Reuters

A FLORIDA diver shot a large grouper with a speargun then apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said today.

The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 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," Detective 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.

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