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The one that didn't get away.
(9 September 2006, Florida) A fearsome mythical giant named Goliath was
felled by David's humble sling. But a modern leviathan vs. a speargun
is another tale altogether, as a 42-year-old man named Gary discovered.
Although it was outlawed in 1990, poaching giant groupers remains
surprisingly popular in the Florida Keys. These muscular fish can weigh
600 pounds, yet underwater hunters voluntarily choose to tether themselves
to the creatures with spearguns, in defiance of both the law and common
sense.
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Formerly called Jewfish, the
Goliath Grouper is the world's largest grouper, attaining weights up
to 600 pounds. They are quite illegal to hunt, and are generally too
tough and wormy to eat, so killing one gives the spearfisher bragging
rights only.
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Of this elite group, our Darwin Award winner further distinguished himself
by disregarding one essential spearfishing precaution. The "fit and
experienced snorkeler" embarked on a grouper hunt without a knife to cut
himself loose, guaranteeing that his next attack would be his last. "Not
wearing a knife is like crossing I-95 with your eyes closed," explained one
experienced diver.
In those final hours, the tables were turned, and the leviathan fish was
given an opportunity to experience "catching a person." The body of the
spearfisher was found pinned to the coral, 17 feet underwater. Three coils
of line were wrapped around his wrist, and one very dead grouper was
impaled at the other end of the line.
Reader Comments:
"Fish Catches Man Story."
"Sounds fishy to me."
"A reel fish tale."
David C. Halley points out that 'slingshot' was originally misused in this
story. "David's weapon was not a slingshot but a sling, an entirely
different device. Slingshots require rubber so could not have been
constructed prior to ~1800 C.E."
MEDIA REFERENCESS:
(1)
(2)
(3)
A Similar Personal Acct.
DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2012
Submitted by: Arjan Kop, Steve Walsh, Buford Pruitt
Reference: Miami Herald, Reuters, Yahoo! News
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Score One For Goliath
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