A funny story about a barracuda we met in Castaway Cay...

[LaurenPlock]

This is purely anecdotal, but I thought I'd share.

The last time my husband and I took a cruise was in Sept. 2010. We were newly married, and an awesome friend gifted us DVC points for a 4-night cruise on the Disney Wonder. (GREAT gift, BTW.)
On our Castaway Cay day, we headed straight for the adult beach, snagged two chairs, and set them in the surf... It was glorious. We noticed the tiny little fish that liked to swim up to us and peck at our toes. We figured out we could keep them around longer if we flicked a little bit of sand at them, I think they thought it was food? Anyway, without realizing it, we had attracted quite a number of little fish, and we're having a lot of fun playing with them. Something ELSE had noticed the fish, too, and all of a sudden, we had a good sized barracuda darting around us quickly, chasing the little fish, and swimming right. under. my. chair.

Naturally, I screamed, and got the heck out of there! The barracuda was gone and quickly as it came (though others that witnessed the whole thing swam out to see if they could find it) and I'll admit, it wasn't too funny at the time, but it's made a great and memorable story years later. We are looking forward to cruising again next year, but I think I'll trade my barracuda encounters for others of the dolphin variety!

 

[kapoof]

Oh my goodness! That had to have been scarey! I know at cast away cay beach I just got into my ankles and saw some good size fish. That was enough for me. I like the beach but prefer pools to swim in. .

 

[LaurenPlock]

I remember it being so hot that we just HAD to sit in the water! The little fish were really cute. The barracuda, on the other hand...

 

[Melissa S]

I thought they were cute until I was badly bitten on our last cruise. So badly that I required medical attention. I was sitting in a couple inches of water with DH and DD (age 3) and my diamond ring must have hit the sunlight and the fish thought it was food and attacked me. My husband had to grab the fish off my hand and I had to run out of the water bleeding. I always thought if you don't bother them, they don't bother you- not true. Very scary since so many kids were around.

 

[quickcat]

I thought they were cute until I was badly bitten on our last cruise. So badly that I required medical attention. I was sitting in a couple inches of water with DH and DD (age 3) and my diamond ring must have hit the sunlight and the fish thought it was food and attacked me. My husband had to grab the fish off my hand and I had to run out of the water bleeding. I always thought if you don't bother them, they don't bother you- not true. Very scary since so many kids were around.

Ok, that is freaky!! So sorry that happened. I can imagine it completely freaked everyone out who seen that. I would never have thought that they would do that either. Definitely will not be feeding Dory anymore!!

 

[Mickey1Fan]

In September there was a barracuda in the adult area at Castaway Cay.

 

[jlwmlm0199]

I shouldn't be surprised it is open water, but I just wasn't thinking that I needed to be worried about a barracuda...

 

[MyShoes]

Lauren, that was a very funny story but Melissa how scary your story was. I didn't realize that barracudas were so prevalent at CC.

 

[mareed]

I also saw a barracuda while snorkeling at Serenity Bay, but wasn't really concerned. I'm not an expert, but looked up a bit online and it seems that they're going to eat fish smaller than them, so wouldn't normally bite a person. I saw suggestions to not wear shiny, flashy things that they might think are a fish though, so just avoid wearing jewelry!

That description matches the stories here where the barracuda was atrracted to the other little fish, and also to the shiny ring!

 

[LaurenPlock]

They are FREAKY fast. Sorry you got hurt, Melissa! Their teeth look sharp!

 

[JDinFL]

A good size barracuda is the size of a fence post and very intimidating when encountered under water.

 

[TeeVeeTD]

Barracuda will investigate shiny objects and possibly taste them . Other than that they are not going to try to eat a human, even a small child.

Funny story. My brother and I were snorkeling in the Florida Keys and we saw a barracuda in the distance. My brother dropped his glove and the barracuda was on it very quickly and followed it all the way to the ocean floor. My brother quickly removed the other glove though.

The only thing that attacked him was a clown fish, Nemo is a clown fish, my brother was looking very closely at a sea anemone with a clown fish in it and the clown came out and grabbed some of his hair that was floating in front of his mask and yanked on it. I thought I was going to swallow half the ocean laughing.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Last September hubby & I did the snorkel the Kittiwake excursion at Grand Cayman. While snorkeling over the shipwreck I was watching schools of fish swirling around a mast structure. When I glanced up at my hubby he was frantically waving his arms & pointing behind me. So I turned to look. A short distance away, I'd say maybe 30 ft., was a ginormous barracuda watching those fishies and us. When I say ginormous I mean it. It was easily as long as I am tall. First thing that popped in my head was "Holy sh--! I didn't know they made 'em that big!" Followed immediately by "Well, I can't out swim that." I immediately started swimming back towards my hubby & the boat we came on. When I turned to glance back it was gone. I did get a pic but it's really iffy. I enhanced it a bunch. You can make out the 'cuda but in open water it's hard to gauge the scale for size.

 

[Green Tea]

I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but my son was bitten on his back in the snorkeling area and bled profusely.

 

[NCConch]

We just sailed in December and I went out in the snorkeling lagoon. I grew up near the beach in Fla and often snorkeled off the beach. I once had a large 'cuda swim right past me. That gave me a scare. Typically you are save with 'cudas as long as you are not spear-fishing. A wriggling fish will cause the 'cuda to become aggressive.

Fast-forward to this past cruise... As I was swimming out to the snorkeling area a yellow tail snapper came right up to me and appeared right in front of my mask. It is a silver fish - just like a 'cuda. Talk about brief panic.

 

[kapoof]

I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but my son was bitten on his back in the snorkeling area and bled profusely.

That's awful! poor kid.

 

[ptcbass]

I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but my son was bitten on his back in the snorkeling area and bled profusely.

Oh no! Was your son wearing anything shiny? Not something you want him to remember from such a great vacation.
Everything I have read in the past said if you remain calm and don't wear anything shiny (including shiny nail polish) that they won't bother you. It did freak me out that they said you just have to stand still and wait for them to leave.

I wonder how many other stories there are out there like this?

 

[Aeryn76]

We were at castaway cay at the beginning of Oct. last year. While sitting in the water near the shore at serenity bay. I saw a few people way far out just standing around looking at something. One lady broke off from the group & as she came close to shore she was telling her friends about how there is a cuda out there. And she didn't want to stay. I didn't blame her, I would have left too.

 

[healeylvr]

In 2012 I was snorkling with my grandson at the family beach and a large group of small fish were around us when I spotted a barracuda about 3ft coming tward us i got between him and GS and flipped sand at him with my fin he kept coming so I sort of slapped him with my hand and he turned away. I don't think he would have bit us but you never know i spoke to the lifeguard about it and he said that he was a regular visitor and wouldn't hurt anybody.

 

[mmouse37]

Barry the barracuda is a frequent visitor to CC....I am sure there is more than one but they named him Barry. I have been reading stories for many years about Barry the Barracuda.

We just had a few of these fish at the family beach in October.

MJ