Glug vs. Brr

September 27, 2006 at 1:03 am (Uncategorized)

I’ve always been kind of interested in scuba diving, but ya know? There’s a lot of freaky stuff under that water. Things with tentacles and teeth. Big ass stuff, too. I mean, imagine going nose-to-nose with even a docile tuna? Those suckers go five tons. And sharks? Forget about it.
Turns out this guy bartended with my brother at a club in Charlotte, NC. A nice guy, from what I hear. And a two dollar pocket knife could have saved his ass. But I don’t really have a point here. What thinks you? Would drowning or freezing to death be the better way to go?

Gary Cagle, an avid free diver, made two mistakes on a Key West fishing trip last Saturday: He speared a goliath grouper, a fish that is illegal to kill in the Florida Keys. He also forgot to bring along his knife. That error cost him his life.
Cagle, spearfishing a half-mile off Smathers Beach, shot a 40-inch goliath grouper. The fish bolted under a coral head, entangling the diver in the line and, acting like an anchor, held him underwater until he drowned. On Sunday, Key West police divers found Cagle’s body pinned to the coral 17 feet down, his mask still on but the snorkel out of his mouth. The spear line was wrapped three times around his wrist, with the spear shaft still in the carcass of the dead fish — shot right through the gills.
Goliath groupers, which can grow up to eight feet and weigh more than 600 pounds, are not known as aggressive — but many of them show little fear of divers or snorkelers.