Awe
First I was stunned. I was looking at a huge fish. It was 1.5 meters long and it was floating in the water. We were snorkeling off Creole Rock in French St. Martin. There was a good deal of coral and many schools of fish, angelfish, sergeant majors, surgeonfish, the works. Then I stared at its head as I circled it slowly. It was a barracuda.
Anxiety
It was not just a barracuda, but the biggest monster I have seen to date. It was floating about 30 cm below the surface and it was so big I squeezed Ingrid's hand and whispered "barracuda" in my snorkel tube. We positioned ourselves to its side and a bit further away, to get a good look and also not to attract attention to ourselves.
Escape
The head of this fish was so big, my whole hand would fit in its mouth effortlessly. I imagined it was pure luck that it wasn't feeding or we may have suddenly become prey. We watched it intently for a good ten minutes as it seemed to rest between the coral heads and apparently unaware fish swam around it. After a while I figured it wasn't going to attack us, or it would have already done so. So I started backing away slowly, holding hands with Ingrid as we exchanged glances while keeping an eye on this monster of the seas. We successfully got away and regretted not having brought the underwater camera Ingrid's brother had bought just the day before.
First I was stunned. I was looking at a huge fish. It was 1.5 meters long and it was floating in the water. We were snorkeling off Creole Rock in French St. Martin. There was a good deal of coral and many schools of fish, angelfish, sergeant majors, surgeonfish, the works. Then I stared at its head as I circled it slowly. It was a barracuda.
Anxiety
It was not just a barracuda, but the biggest monster I have seen to date. It was floating about 30 cm below the surface and it was so big I squeezed Ingrid's hand and whispered "barracuda" in my snorkel tube. We positioned ourselves to its side and a bit further away, to get a good look and also not to attract attention to ourselves.
Escape
The head of this fish was so big, my whole hand would fit in its mouth effortlessly. I imagined it was pure luck that it wasn't feeding or we may have suddenly become prey. We watched it intently for a good ten minutes as it seemed to rest between the coral heads and apparently unaware fish swam around it. After a while I figured it wasn't going to attack us, or it would have already done so. So I started backing away slowly, holding hands with Ingrid as we exchanged glances while keeping an eye on this monster of the seas. We successfully got away and regretted not having brought the underwater camera Ingrid's brother had bought just the day before.
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