"Worst nightmare material right here."
Now, we’ve dealt with sharks, Great White, Tiger and Bull, here much. They are post-apocalyptic apex-predators. Man-eaters. Foot fetishists and very scary. Eating through us male surfers, us masculine wave dancers, one at a time. Oh, our fixation is as justified as it is warranted but…
…there are other terrors lurking in the deep.
Horrors that the surfing mind shies away from but if we are to be safe we must have eyes in the backs of our skulls for it is there a new menace is attacking.
The flying needlefish.
And let us travel across the warm seas to wave-rich paradise Indonesia for the very latest.
An Indonesian boy has required lifesaving surgery after being impaled in the neck by a flying needlefish.
Muhammad Idul was fishing with his parents in Buton waters off the South East Sulawesi province on Saturday when a needlefish jumped out of the water.
The fish’s long slender snout sliced straight through the 16-year-old’s neck and pierced the back of his skull.
The student was rushed to hospital for treatment, before undergoing risky surgery to remove the fish from his neck two days later.
Television show IFish described the graphic photos as ‘worst nightmare material right here,’ when they were shared on its Facebook page.
‘Amazing he survived,’ one person commented on the Facebook post.
Another added: ‘What a pain in the neck!’
Needlefish are distinguished by their long, slender jaw which bears multiple sharp teeth capable of inflicting deep wounds.
They are also adept jumpers renowned for leaping out of the water at up to 60 km/h.
Now, do you think the “pain in the neck” comment was completely necessary?
Are you the first to clap when a waitress or waiter drops a heavy load whilst clearing tables?
Rude.
Also, no more surfing in Indonesia. Cancel boat trips etc. until it is learned whether these flying needlefish are terrorists or not.
More as the story develops.
I showed my wife the pic and she said she’s never going in the ocean, ever. So mission accomplished (she doesn’t surf, but hey it’s still one less potential VAL.)
When I first started surfing I thought I wanted to date a girl that surfs…until I did.
christ almighty.
a needlefish is a Longtom.
true.
Those are horrendous photos right thru the neck. Awesome. Can’t believe the guy is even alive. In Hawai`i we call them Aha. They like to hover just below the surface in shallow water and then strike hard and fast. Nasty dangerous fucks. There’s many recorded attacks. I’ve had them jump and pierce my gunwale at night like a knife when bottom fishing with lights in only 3 fathoms. Here’s a crib from Wiki on needlefish:
Two historical deaths have been attributed to needlefish. The first was in 1977 when a 10-year-old Hawaiian boy, night fishing with his father at Hanamaulu Bay, Kaua’i, was killed when a 1.0-to-1.2-metre-long (3.3 to 3.9 ft) needlefish jumped from the water and pierced his eye and brain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
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I just saw your comment after writing mine above. I used to always throw them back when fishing, until my friends Marshallese wife told me to cut em up crosswise into steaks and fry it up. Was good. I find they really like to hit silver steel Kastmasters and Krocodiles slowly trolled on the surface.
Green fookin teeth and a neon mouth.
The poor kid is now known as Frankenstein by his classmates.
Indo. Outdo too.
Surgery two days later. Two f*cking days later?
Shark – “I can walk you know”
Needlefish – “Hold my beer”
So you think they killed the fish and left in in there? Seems like it would be thrashing around like crazy trying to get out. Also wanna bet they cooked that mean little bastard?
As a fisherman, you should always eat what you catch and kill. You know they cut the head off, left it in the neck as they took him to the hospital, and cooked the body later. It says it took them 2 days to finally remove it during surgery? Wow. But those needlefish are kamikaze little bastards. A friend was just telling me 2 weeks ago that a baby needlefish jumped out of the water and impaled him in the leg while kayak fishing here in Hawaii. Wasn’t a bad injury, but he was able to pick out tiny pieces of needle fish jaw bone from his leg. And about 10 years ago a night diver died in Kaneohe due to a needle fish spearing him in the temple while spearfishing. It was attracted to the light and his dive partner said it just came out of nowhere like a bullet and unfortunately speared his beak right into the guys brain. So sad. I told my kayak fisher friend about this story too, and how he got lucky it was only a baby, and it just got him in the leg
Im happy to hear this Indonesian kid survived.
Ahhh yeah. That’s makes sense cutting off the head. I was imagining a 3 foot long fish sticking outta this poor kids neck. I’ve only seen them in Indonesia, and they make this crazy FWIP sound when they breach the water and dive back in. I was in Lombok and there was a school (dozens of em) of them that were jumping out of the water in the line up. You’d just hear this fwip fwip fwip sound. Small though, like 18 inches.
Glad to see sharks aren’t the only terroristic beasts in the ocean receiving bad press these days