.       You won't read about it in DAN's edition of Skin Diver, but in the
regular edition DeLoach and Humann have exposed the identity of the most
vicious, blood-spilling horror that they have discovered in 30 years of
exploration of tropical reefs.  It's not the great white or the killer
whale.  Neither is it the tiger shark nor the oceanic whitetip that took
the lives of so many sailors from the Indianapolis.  No, it's nothing
cautious like a shark that a diver can combat.  It gives fear; but it
doesn't have fear.  In fact, before the blood clouds the water, the last
thing that most victims remember in their flailing efforts to escape are
the twin, vampire-like fangs driving at them in attack after attack.  Like
the toothed steel jaws of a bear trap crushing the leg of a grizzly, these
jaws were meant to bite.

         And they don't just attack the careless or naive newbie.  The
attack on DeLoach verifies  what most NEDs know, that even ultra-cautious
dive gods can easily become victims of this hulking demon that's ten times
the length of the most ferocious damselfish.  This living nightmare can't
be fended off with a push from a camera as many sharks can, no, the attacks
come fast and furious and survivors count themselves lucky to just swim
away with lost fins and a handful of bone gouging scars.  It's not pretty;
the attacks are unprovoked and stop as mysteriously as they start so if you
ever find yourself on open sand with scattered coral patches in the
Indo-Pacific, keep your eyes open for the living nightmare, Balistoides
viridescens.


DPTNST,


John