Swimmer survives
attack by marlin

The researcher was speared
as the marlin was battling whales

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> A marlin apparently fighting off a pod of false killer whales speared a researcher who was swimming nearby recording the event.

Whale researcher Mark Ferrari was about three miles off Puamana in West Maui when the marlin attacked him, leaving a 5- to 6-inch-wide gash in his shoulder beneath his collarbone.

"He (the marlin) was fighting for his life, and he was trying to take out anything he could," said Ferrari, 52, resting at Maui Memorial Medical Center after surgery yesterday.

His right arm was in a sling, and a bandage covered the right side of his neck near the shoulder. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Carrying a waterproof video camera, Ferrari had gone into the water at about 9 a.m. yesterday to find out why the false killer whales were in a frenzy.

Ferrari said the water was murky, and had he realized the whales were attacking a marlin, he would not have gone in.

His wife, Deborah, who was on a research catamaran about 10 yards from him, said she was getting ready to go into the water herself, when she saw a marlin make a zigzag maneuver as it came toward Ferrari. At first she thought it was a shark.

After spearing him, the marlin swung its bill back and forth and withdrew it, she said.

"Thank God it was able to free itself. Otherwise, it might have pulled him (Mark) down," Deborah Ferrari said.

She and boat pilot Jim Peckarsky helped Ferrari climb aboard the catamaran.

"He was very calm and didn't pass out," Peckarsky said.

Deborah Ferrari said no major arteries or organs were injured, but her husband suffered lacerations to nerves and the surgeon found bone chips from his collarbone.

She said the family would not know for a while if the wound had caused any permanent damage to the shoulder or arm.

Based on Ferrari's estimate of the marlin being 10 to 15 feet long, a state official said the fish could have weighed about 500 pounds, Deborah said.

Randy Draper, a captain of a snorkeling boat, said he was nearby and saw about 30 false killer whales jumping.

Draper said marlin are mean fish, faster and more agile than a shark.

"Hardly anything touches a marlin, including a pilot whale," he said.

The Ferraris, who operate their nonprofit Center for Whale Studies, are known for their research in determining the sex of whales.

Federal whale rescue coordinator David Matilla said he has heard of marlins attacking whales and boats, but never a man until this incident.

False killer whales are bigger than bottlenose dolphins but much smaller than orcas (killer whales), which they resemble.