BARRY MARKOWITZ / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN Tonga "Piu" Loumoli was helped Thursday night after he was impaled by a barracuda a mile offshore at Kahana Bay.

Barracuda suspected
in rare attack
on isle diver

Just before the attack, Tonga Loumoli remembers spotting several sharks -- seemingly sniffing his catches.

They left him alone, though.

Rather, it was another fish that landed Loumoli in the intensive-care unit at the Queen's Medical Center with a 6-inch-long gash to his abdomen and potentially irreparable damage to his liver.

In a highly unusual incident, a 4-foot-long fish that Loumoli is certain was a barracuda charged into the 19-year-old's stomach while he was night diving Thursday off Kahana Bay near Kaaawa. When the animal wriggled loose, it left behind a substantial wound and a tooth.

"It came full strength and hit him from the front, on the stomach," Loumoli's mother, Paea, said yesterday. "It ran straight into him."

Doctors say the Mililani resident is lucky to be alive. He is also quite fortunate to have been swimming with Braven Rivera, a quick-thinking buddy, who threw Loumoli into a small dinghy, dragged him nearly a mile to shore and flagged down an officer who called for help.

If it was indeed a barracuda that impaled Loumoli, the incident could be the first of its kind recorded in the islands, according to marine expert Craig Thomas.

The fish have been known -- though rarely -- to bite and leave serious wounds, but Thomas said he has never heard of a barracuda charging into a swimmer.

"Nothing's impossible," he said, "but I'd be very surprised."

He said it seems more likely that Loumoli was impaled by a needlefish.

But Loumoli, who has been night diving since his freshman year in high school, is adamant that he was attacked by a barracuda.

"I saw clearly -- it was a barracuda," agreed Rivera, the friend Loumoli was diving with Thursday night. "It was a big one."

A tooth the fish left behind could solve the mystery and should be examined, Thomas said.

The attack happened about 11:35 p.m. when Loumoli and Rivera, 44, were spearfishing in 6- to 8-foot waters about a mile offshore. The two frequent the spot and know it well.

According to his mother, Loumoli was wearing a headlight and a silver necklace. A barracuda would have likely been attracted to the necklace, Thomas said, while a light would have attracted a needlefish.

During the dive, Loumoli told his mother, the duo "met a lot of sharks, but they were never bothered by them." Then they saw what they believe was a barracuda.

It swam past Loumoli slowly before making a sharp right-angle turn and ramming into him. "It happened so quickly," said Paea Loumoli, who got a call just before midnight Thursday that her son was at Queen's and headed into surgery.

Loumoli, a student at Remington College in Honolulu, suffered serious liver damage, although doctors were still assessing its extent, according to his mother.

He is on a machine to help his breathing and so could not talk about the incident. He is able to respond with hand signs, though, and has written notes to his mother and sister about the attack.

One of the first things he scribbled down when he woke up yesterday was, "I'm going to quit diving."

Paea Loumoli said she has long been worried about her son's late-night hobby and has encouraged him to concentrate on his music instead. The teen is a member of a Tongan band, Naati Moonia.

"When he goes diving, I can't sleep," Paea Loumoli said during a break from watching over her son. "It's always worried me and scared me to death."

It is unclear when Loumoli will get out of the hospital, but doctors are hopeful he will be moved from the intensive care unit before the weekend is over.

Loumoli, his mother said, usually fishes for his church and family members. Thursday night, he was trying to stock up on fish for an upcoming visit from his grandparents.

And just that morning, he had celebrated his father's 50th birthday.

Loumoli now "has a scar to give his father," his mother said with a quiet laugh.