Barracuda-Like Fish Punctures Woman's Chest: Why?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_1...-10391704.html

When it comes to enjoying the ocean, many of us worry about encountering a shark or a barracuda. But it seems that the long, sleek fish that punctured the lung of a Florida kayaker last Sunday was a fish of a different kind.

Karri Larson, 46, was paddling in shallow waters among the mangrove islands off Big Pine Key when a four-foot fish that experts say was most likely a houndfish jumped from the water and punctured her back with its sharp snout, according to the Miami Herald.

She was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where she was in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit yesterday.

Why would something like this happen? Experts say houndfish are easily spooked and leap from the water if threatened. And they have reason to be hypervigilant - sharks, mackerel and barracuda consider them delicious.
In this case, the prey seems to have become an accidental predator.

``That long snout would be a reasonably good weapon, like an arrow, if it jumped out of the water,'' George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida, told the Herald.
Burgess said that although the incident was not unprecedented, it was "fluky."