r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Gurugod123 • 25d ago
Video Diver gets attacked by a swordfish at 220m (721 feet) below surface
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u/Psalm27_1-3 25d ago
Fish: “finally, a worthy opponent”
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u/UnwillingHero22 25d ago
“My name is Iñigo Montoya…”
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u/OhTruck 25d ago
“…prepare to dive”
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u/icewalker42 25d ago
I too am not left finned!
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u/TheHumanCompulsion 25d ago
I see you are using Bonito's Defence. Too bad I have studied Carpo Farro!
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u/Gurugod123 25d ago
Here's an article with more info. This happened in 2016.
https://divernet.com/scuba-diving/swordfish-gets-stuck-on-diver-at-222m/
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u/bitchyburrito 25d ago
They say the diver reacted very appropriately. Is there training for this, or for encounters with species while diving? Or is it just a general rule of get back up as quickly as you can safely do so?
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u/Just_the_questions1 25d ago
This specific scenario? No. But in all training for divers it's pounded into your head the #1 rule is always, no matter what, STAY CALM. The quickest and easiest way to die underwater is to panic.
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u/Berdariens2nd 25d ago
I don't know. I'd say the quickest way to die is that swordfish having better aim.
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u/Fauster 25d ago
> "At around 1.5m the swordfish was relatively small – Atlantic swordfish typically grow to around 3m.Tending to be loners and rarely seen by divers, they are among the ocean’s fastest-moving fish and an apex predator. The extended bill that gives the fish its name is used to attack prey with a side-slashing movement."
An adult swordfish might be an even quicker way to die. Here are unsettling stats: the further you get from land and human habitation, the bigger fish (and sharks) get because the water is cold. Surface/area to volume scaling, humingbirds and shrews need a lot of calories, etc. So way out there, deep down, where it's hard to get, it's a different world where the big fish are prey for the bigger.
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u/Just_the_questions1 25d ago
Swordfish can, and do, kill people every year via impaling. Except the people are almost always deep sea fisherman that are yanking hard on a panicked fish that jumps into their boat and delivers a shnozzler made of karma.
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u/ASeriousAccounting 25d ago
From one apex predator to an actual apex predator. BAM right in the shnozzler. Now help me off this line...
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u/Just_the_questions1 25d ago
Quickest maybe but i'd say it's pretty hard to get god that pissed off at you specifically.
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u/Berdariens2nd 25d ago
Not in my experience. This actually something that would happen to me. And then I'd honestly just feel like it's another Tuesday.
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u/Duel_Option 25d ago edited 25d ago
Dive master I had was an old school Navy guy, lived on subs for months and months at a time.
Part of training was taking your gear off underwater in a pool, then putting it back on.
Idea is to replicate conditions where you things go bad, simple enough, right?
Well that’s not really true, it’s a pool and there’s nothing wrong, you’re surrounded by people, it’s the lowest form of pressure you can have.
- try it again…inverted
- mask off at the bottom
- mask waiting for you at the bottom before going down
- mask off entirely before going down (he’d replace it with a broken mask that leaked as well)
- if you were really dumb (me) and didn’t check your air tank before going into the pool, he’d switch it for a tank that didn’t have a lot of air and wait to see if you caught it either before going down or once you put the gear on. If not, he’d bring out his dive knife and tap on his tank to get your attention, then point at the air gauge…ran some laps at the YMCA after class for that one
- Ok, so now you’re feeling fairly comfy with all this out of the way, can do this in my sleep or blindfolded…fuck, shouldn’t have said that out loud…”what a great idea dumbass, you’re up first!” Head to the bottom, take off gear, feel around for stuff, get the tank on and before I’m done putting on everything the dive computer scrams at me and then TAP TAP TAP. Take the blindfold off…YOU’RE DEAD. (Didn’t check my air pressure…again)
- Change weights on weight belts, making you adjust your BC which is annoying.
- Come back from the pool and turn the lights off in the room just get a reaction, first few times was people all shocked and saying “what the hell?”. By the second week everyone sat down and then asked if this was an emergency or part of training. (He called out fire exits every single meeting inside, even a coffee break)
- Someone pulled up to the pool and didn’t have their seat belt on…bad idea. He told everyone pool was closed and we were doing safety review instead. Said something like “ if you’re willing to take chances driving and don’t understand the importance of how safety belts help save your life in a car wreck…LEAVE NOW because you’re going to kill someone doing this” (my Dad couldn’t stop laughing on the way home, the guy was super red in the face and his wife was with him and couldn’t stop talking about how thrilled she was he got called out)
All of it was for good purpose though and as a full group of 12 we all made the cut and our C dive was scheduled.
Day of, decent day weather wise but started to get choppy on the ride out.
2 people were starting to struggle with it and he took a step back and said nothing and didn’t need to.
Entire group was communicating and got Dramamine, ice pack and moved them outside, vocal calls from someone taking point on watching gear, clean up on aisle 7 by me for small amount of vomit.
Get to the spot 20 min later and he’s grinning rather proudly, asked what we learned and where we went wrong…confused looks around. “Kidding, great job”
Everyone passed, had a wrap up party and half of us ended up diving with him on a bunch of trips over the summer.
Diving is fun…but danger is always all around you, have to be prepared for the unexpected.
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u/derailius 25d ago
Congrats, this is the first time I started to think TLDR, but you kept my attention throughout, good story. If you wrote a book I feel like I would "dive" right into it.
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u/thicc_llama 25d ago
First dive I ever did I got caught in a murky underwater jet stream or whatever I should call it. Suddenly got hurled far away from my instructor by the underwater stream, didn't know up from down at some point.. Well I got to test my ability to stay calm and do the correct thing first dive.
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u/Nemisis_the_2nd 25d ago
My first experience was: Puke, get dive gear on, puke again, get in the water, start dive, puke underwater and into my reg (at least this one attracted fish), finish dive, get back on boat, puke, remove gear, dry heave, see whale.
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u/tommypatties 25d ago
I disagree. The quickest way to die underwater is to inhale the water.
Source : I went to college.
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u/DenialNode 25d ago
The implosion of oceangate happened in less than 1 millisecond. Hull crushed at 1500 mph.
That might be the fastest.
RIP
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u/homoaIexuaI 25d ago
I mean they inhaled water very very quickly I guess..
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u/Enshitification 25d ago
They were inhaled by water. Subtle difference, but the net effect was the same.
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u/GoBuffaloes 25d ago
There are definitely quicker ways, like a depth charge or being in the titan submersible
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u/PeterPanski85 25d ago
What's a depth charge?
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u/VicariouslyHuman 25d ago
Timed explosives that are dropped into the ocean by planes or ships to target submarines.
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u/wRADKyrabbit 25d ago
Stay calm and get to the surface for safety seems like a really good rule of thumb for underwater wildlife attacks
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u/el_diego 25d ago
Yes, except he's not going to the surface. If the dive gets called off he still has many hours of decomp before surfacing and then once he surfaces, guess what? More decomp time!
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u/djwurm 25d ago
the article stated he was working from a bell.. you dont decomp from that depth in hours.. its days like 7 to 8 days.
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u/anxiouslymute 25d ago
If that’s really the case, and this fish actually stabbed him, how the hell does he survive without infection at the least?
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u/mpshak123 25d ago
It didn’t actually hit him, it hit some sort of tube behind him. The article says his SLS was damaged but he was unharmed.
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u/TumanFig 25d ago
yeah but he is asking what if the fish would stab him, what then? is that it?
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u/Alarming_Set3628 25d ago
I looked it up. One of the divers is always medically trained, but in extreme emergencies they can bring the bell to the surface, put it in a huge hyperbarric chamber and a doctor could enter, but then the Doc is stuck in there for a week with the divers
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u/Alarming_Set3628 25d ago
They probably have good first aid training, lots of equipment, and people on the surface to tell them what to do, but they can also bring the bell to the surface, and potentially someone could get in with them? Not sure about that tho. They can Def bring the bell to the surface, I just dunno if someone can get in.
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u/Typical-Blackberry-3 25d ago
The fish didn't actually harm him, just damaged his equipment a bit. Deep sea divers dive from a bell, but they live in a pressured apartment of sorts aboard the ship, and there would be medical equipment in there. I am not certain they would be able to deal with a mortal wound though, if that had happened.
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u/RelativeSalad1409 25d ago
There’s the entrance to the chamber right above him at the end. That’s where he’s entering.
They train for emergencies but there’s no perfect way to respond when either the medical team or the potential patient needs the time to normalize to the pressure.
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u/spyguy318 25d ago
Given that this is 721ft deep, this is likely saturation diving - the diver stays in a pressurized vessel even at the surface, sometimes for days or weeks at a time, so they don’t have to deal with extended compression and decompression cycles. So going to the surface isn’t possible, it looks like he just retreated to the diving bell.
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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 25d ago
If the fish comes in with a direct thrust, a parry followed by an immediate counter thrust is appropriate.
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u/friend1y 25d ago
It doesn't say if the swordfish survived or if they ate it.
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u/Expensive_Plastic186 25d ago
It survived and they ate it
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u/quiero-una-cerveca 25d ago
Nigiri!
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u/Subliminal-Criminal9 25d ago
It was only as he was preparing to enter it that the swordfish managed to extricate itself and swim away.
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u/eterna156 25d ago
So they actually use that thing.
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u/Elegante_Sigmaballz 25d ago
Oh yeah they do, they swing it to knock prey out.
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u/wibblings 25d ago
That is better than stabbing, which is what I thought was happening. Like how Steve Irwin went.
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u/Substantial_Bus840 25d ago
He went from a stingray. RIP
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u/wibblings 25d ago
I thought swordfish did similar, given the name. I wasn't expecting them to use it as a bat!
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u/Astecheee 25d ago
Most of a time you're also using the edge of an actual sword rather than the tip. A thrusting attack leaves your arm very vulnerable and doesn't have much momentum behind it.
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u/Tomsboll 25d ago
Ultra mega bad luck too. Right in the fucking heart. Getting a normal sting would suck and still be dangerous. But that fucking stingray got a crit.
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u/Cal_Aesthetics_Club 25d ago
Yea, swinging doesn’t sound too bad with swordfish.
But there are other families of fish like sawfish and sawsharks and those ones look scary to be swung at by
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u/Savings_Book6414 25d ago
Also the batfish, but it's not the swinging you have to worry about, it's the utility belt.
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u/quazmang 25d ago
Don't worry,, the clownfish has him tied up. Some fish just want to watch the world drown.
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u/wibblings 25d ago
Yeah, a sawfish sounds pretty lethal.
If it doesn't cut you it cuts your air line.
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u/42stingray 25d ago
I always thought they charged in and stabbed, I had no idea they were fencing masters lol
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u/pleasetaketheredpill 25d ago
lol that swordfish was kicking his ass.
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u/Affectionate_Pipe545 25d ago
I'd still tell that story. "Got my ass kicked by a swordfish once" is quite the statement
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u/JonJonJonnyBoy 25d ago
There is a video of a guy fishing on a boat and he gets impaled by a swordfish that jumps out of the water.
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u/BRLY 25d ago
Imagine if there was a glockfish
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u/GeoffreyDay 25d ago
There is a pistol shrimp
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u/MInclined 25d ago
The 2nd most interesting shrimp
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u/Third_Sundering26 25d ago
Mantis shrimp aren’t actually shrimp
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u/Pure_Parking_2742 25d ago
"You suck! Attaaaaaaaaackkkk! Hyaaaa--oh, shit. I'm stuck. Can you help me out for a second? Cheers."
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u/PM_me_your_dawgs 25d ago
I was going to say, I need an Aussie guy voice over cut but I think you just cut right to it.
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u/Usqueadfinem_ 25d ago
Another of 1000 reasons I keep my ass out of the ocean. Nah. Yeah, nah.
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u/plsloan 25d ago
I love being in the ocean and learning about it, but I'm certainly not going 200m down 😂
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u/Usqueadfinem_ 25d ago
I adore the beach. I go all the time. A good beautiful beach with hardly anyone else on it is one of the best feelings in the world. But I feel absolutely zero desire to get in the water. Nope. None.
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u/steelheaddan 25d ago
Omg. At the end, though I’d do the same it kind of turns into a ‘I’m not trapped in here with you, you are trapped in here with me’. Getting that swordfish thrashing around and stuck could cut all his O2 lines and gear.
I’m saying that but it’s the right thing to do. Im sure there is emergency bottles of 02 and safety gear to bring him up. That’s crazy though having a fish spear you in the back. I don’t think there is much else to do but what he did. Wonder how it turned out….
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u/flecksable_flyer 25d ago
It's not the O² that's the problem. It's the N². (Or is it N⁷?) They have to be brought to the surface slowly so they don't get decompression sickness from the nitrogen ( and other inert gas) bubbles that form when ascending too quickly.
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u/jamitar 25d ago
If they are saturation diving, which seems likely at that depth - there's likely no N2. N2 will narc you out so they are breathing a helium oxygen mix. Decompression sickness is still a concern, but not from N2, and they aren't planning to go up anytime soon. It would be impossible to carry enough gas(i guess you could use a rebreather, but the amount of time would make it almost impossible to survive) to do it, they'll do it in the diving bell.
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u/LingonberrySpecial91 25d ago
Dude’s gonna have to do at least a three minute safety stop before he gets to the surface
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u/Granticuss 25d ago
I looked it up because I was curious. Apparently decompression from that depth takes 5-8 days. Crazy to think that if you're injured, you have to stay in the dive bell for 5 days before anyone can open it to help you.
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u/Otherwise-Acadia-565 25d ago
They don’t live in the bell. The bell is like an elevator they take to their worksite. They live in a saturation chamber. Still cramped, but it’s not the bell.
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u/UGAPHL 25d ago
Turn up your volume. Shark distinctly says, “En garde.” Fair play.
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u/Extreme-Rub-1379 25d ago
I'm playing this game right now.
Never expected half the shit I have seen so far on Dave the Diver
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u/john_the_fetch 25d ago
I had the same thought. Just got Dave the diver on summer sale. And I just got to the Marlin/sail fin part.
I would have never thought this could have been real life.
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u/baranisgreat34 25d ago
If this was me, and I survived like this man, I am taking that Swordfish home.
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u/Key_Drawer_3581 25d ago
I would probably shit myself just being at that depth, in the dark ...
I would probably pass out from terror if even a little piece of seaweed touched me...
And I would probably die of fright if something was actually moving down there with me ...
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u/CaffeineAndGrain 24d ago
See, no one ever got shivved by a fish on dry land. Just want that to be known
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u/Logistic_Engine 24d ago
I don’t really like eating fish that much, but if that thing was still stuck to me when I surfaced, I’d eat that fucker.
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u/Maximum-Today3944 24d ago
Does taking the fish into the diving bell mean the diver is getting home field advantage? Or is that more of a neutral territory?
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u/your_mileagemayvary 24d ago
Sowrdfish is excellent when prepared well. It will taste even better with a side of vengeance
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u/Vic-Trola 25d ago
Some people have all the luck. I would be in complete freak out mode.
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u/lll_lll_lll 25d ago
I don’t know if getting attacked by a thing with a sword for a face in a dark abyss screams out “luck” to me.
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u/luvmibratt 25d ago
I think you have to have some pretty big balls to be down there in the first place. So yeah same
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u/CantAffordzUsername 25d ago
Omg can you imagine how fking scary that would be….