I was snokeling with my wife at Secret Paradise (closed, expansion stalled years ago) on the far westend. My wife got tired and went back to our cottage. I had a disposable Kodak camera for taking underwayer shots on my wrist so I continued to explore and as I went further from shore the fish got bigger and bigger. I was really enjoying myself when I spotted something in my right periferal vision. I swung my head and saw a 2 meter long Barracuda. I took one look at the mouth full of teeth, gasped, sucked in a bunch of sea water, retched, sputtered and started swimming hard on my back. I wanted to keep and eye on that sucker, but of course, with me head out of the water that was hard to do.
I got back to shore and laughed at myself for panicing and failing to get a photo of my swimming companion. I looked up Barracuda in my Peterson's Field guide and learned that it wasn't uncommon to have the same experience, but not to worry because I was too big to trigger its attack response . . . unless I had something bright and shiny on me. Like my golves or the bright yellow Kodak hanging off my wrist?!
My friend Junior later told me that, "If you don't trouble him, he don't trouble you. But if you trouble him, he gonna trouble you." He also said that Barracuda was the sweetest fish in the sea. I pointed out that as a top of the pyramid predator that Barracuda aslo tended to accumulate toxins and could be poisonous and cause ciguatera. He said they put the fish on an ant hill and "dem lick it, it OK to eat." That's pretty much nonsense because we don't have much in commen with ant digestion and physiology. The same goes for other poisonous things we might eat. Birds love Poison Ivy berries for instance, but that doesn't mean we can eat them. Anyway, years later my friends caught a large barracuda and had Wen cook it up. It was a lovely meal at his home just beyond Out Of Town Pastry. Towards the end of the meal somthing caused a tingling sensation in my mouth. I started to panic a bit, but was apparently the only one experiencing it. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that Barracuda isn't out to get you! --Marblehead
