bluemtnrunner
Beach Fanatic
My baby brother is a fishing guide south of Sarasota. Today he sent me some great pictures of a recent trip. As I scrolled through them things were not adding up....this was not a normal trip. The first thing I notice is the guy holding the fish is wearing a wet suit (NOT NORMAL) then I spy his spear gun, ok, so they changed up from flats fishing and went off shore for spearing, I can understand that.
Lots of pictures of really huge fish follow. And then, there is one of a guy lying in the bottom of the boat looking really pale and awful...hmmm maybe some seasickness or drinking occured? More pics of the guy now lying in the fetal position on top of several dry-bags. AND THEN...the coast guard helio photo.
I immediately call "baby huey" for the rest of the story and here it is second hand.
My brother took a group off shore for some fishing and spearing. One of the guys is a world class competitive free diver. Another has been free diving with him for a while but is not as experienced. These two proceed to nail a huge jack (I mean as big as the diver) and several others. There is a huge one down there that they want but know they won't be able to handle it once they spear it so they tie off the speargun line to a fishing pole line on the boat (no one ever does this)and head back down to shoot the fish. The experienced diver is down first and hunting his fish, he is just about out of air and ready to surface when a speargun comes floating down in front of him. He looks up and sees his partner unconscious in the water, they are deep still. With no air left, he is unable to drag the other guy to the surface. He knows that if he goes back up for air he will never be able to find him again SO....he takes his speargun and shoots at the guy's foot. He intended to literally shoot him through the foot to be sure the line wouldn't come out, he wound up just getting it through his fin. At any rate, he surfaces and yells to the boat to cut the anchor line and start hauling the line from the spear gun. My brother thinks he has the fish on and wants them to start hauling so he slacks the anchor and manuevers over. The diver is shouting to them that the other guy is drowning down there and attached to the line. They haul the guy up from the depths by reeling in the fishing pole. My brother said that when they pulled him in the boat he was limp and bleeding from the eyes and ears...not good. Desperately they pumped him to get the water out of his lungs and get him breathing again (Patrick did stop for a second to ask about the spear coming out of the guys fin but decided it was not important right then. He thinks maybe the guy shot himself in the foot or was shot accidentally and that is what started the whole thing) They got the guy coughing up water and the blood stopped bubbling from his mouth. The Coasties were on their way. By the time the coastguard got out there the guy was sitting upright somewhat and trying to refuse the ride in the basket up to the helio. Patrick insisted that he go, with 65 miles of Gulf to cross and his overall condition still unknown, they were not taking chances.
The guys spent the night in ICU, doctors say that his glottis swelled which blocked the water from coming in (I'm not all that clear on this part) which saved him from drowning.
After the helio took off the remaining guys collapsed into a cold beer and tried to figure out what had happened. It is still unclear why he passed out, maybe from too much free diving over several days (I know that with scuba nitrogen narcosis is a danger but not sure about free diving). The guy who shot him the foot finally got to explain that he had known several incidents like this which resulted in both divers dying because the conscious one lost consciousness trying to get them to the surface. Shooting him was his only option given the air that he had available to him.
So what do you think about that?
Lots of pictures of really huge fish follow. And then, there is one of a guy lying in the bottom of the boat looking really pale and awful...hmmm maybe some seasickness or drinking occured? More pics of the guy now lying in the fetal position on top of several dry-bags. AND THEN...the coast guard helio photo.
I immediately call "baby huey" for the rest of the story and here it is second hand.
My brother took a group off shore for some fishing and spearing. One of the guys is a world class competitive free diver. Another has been free diving with him for a while but is not as experienced. These two proceed to nail a huge jack (I mean as big as the diver) and several others. There is a huge one down there that they want but know they won't be able to handle it once they spear it so they tie off the speargun line to a fishing pole line on the boat (no one ever does this)and head back down to shoot the fish. The experienced diver is down first and hunting his fish, he is just about out of air and ready to surface when a speargun comes floating down in front of him. He looks up and sees his partner unconscious in the water, they are deep still. With no air left, he is unable to drag the other guy to the surface. He knows that if he goes back up for air he will never be able to find him again SO....he takes his speargun and shoots at the guy's foot. He intended to literally shoot him through the foot to be sure the line wouldn't come out, he wound up just getting it through his fin. At any rate, he surfaces and yells to the boat to cut the anchor line and start hauling the line from the spear gun. My brother thinks he has the fish on and wants them to start hauling so he slacks the anchor and manuevers over. The diver is shouting to them that the other guy is drowning down there and attached to the line. They haul the guy up from the depths by reeling in the fishing pole. My brother said that when they pulled him in the boat he was limp and bleeding from the eyes and ears...not good. Desperately they pumped him to get the water out of his lungs and get him breathing again (Patrick did stop for a second to ask about the spear coming out of the guys fin but decided it was not important right then. He thinks maybe the guy shot himself in the foot or was shot accidentally and that is what started the whole thing) They got the guy coughing up water and the blood stopped bubbling from his mouth. The Coasties were on their way. By the time the coastguard got out there the guy was sitting upright somewhat and trying to refuse the ride in the basket up to the helio. Patrick insisted that he go, with 65 miles of Gulf to cross and his overall condition still unknown, they were not taking chances.
The guys spent the night in ICU, doctors say that his glottis swelled which blocked the water from coming in (I'm not all that clear on this part) which saved him from drowning.
After the helio took off the remaining guys collapsed into a cold beer and tried to figure out what had happened. It is still unclear why he passed out, maybe from too much free diving over several days (I know that with scuba nitrogen narcosis is a danger but not sure about free diving). The guy who shot him the foot finally got to explain that he had known several incidents like this which resulted in both divers dying because the conscious one lost consciousness trying to get them to the surface. Shooting him was his only option given the air that he had available to him.
So what do you think about that?
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