Originally Posted By: bsmith

'cudas are very curious and unless you're in murky water or swimming in their area at dusk - will leave you alone. but it is very unnerving to see them hanging out near you, following you with those gaping jaws with gnarly sharp teeth.

before i knew better i actually allowed a pair of them to chase me out of the water - they followed me from 15' deep water to a point where i was on my butt, backing slowly up onto the beach! what a sight that must have been! hawaiian sling in hand and fins on the feet.

a local almost broke ribs laughing so hard when i told him the story and asked about the 'cudas. yah, mon!

just remember we are in their territory and they are extremely adapted to it. we are not.

sharks are a different story. go for the eyes.


I use to dive quite often here, and pretty much every dive you would see at least one. You would get this feeling that your being stalked, then you look behind yourself and there's one about 10 foot back. Once they saw that you saw them, they would scatter or get to 20-30 feet on the left or right of you to take a better look. Then they disappear then you'd get that feeling again.

They don't bother you unless your wearing something flashy. A few years back a tourist was wearing one of those belly chains on a local beach (barracua's swim there often - locals fish for them there). She went out beyond the cove and got attacked right at the belly area. She survived, but probably still can't eat solid food and won't be coming back.
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