The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

6.3 kg. , 13.9 lbs.

Triggerfish, Blunthead Pseudobalistes naufragium

Record Category: Women Speargun

Diver:		Terri Lynn Manna
Date:		5/31/2022
Location:		MEXICO

I had just been married on May 14, 2022. I am a Canadian citizen and my husband is Mexican, so it was a destination wedding for my friends and family. Certain people came to have some vacation time before the wedding weekend and others stayed longer afterward. My cousin, Tracy Stone, stayed with my husband and me for about 3 weeks after the wedding, and really wanted to watch me spearfish at some point. So, on a good-conditions day I organized a shore dive from a beach about 45 minutes from my house in La Paz. It's known as Cueva de Leon or Punta Arena beach. The people present were me, Tracy, and one of my spearo dive buddies, Anna Sara. With my cousin just snorkeling in a bathing suit beside me, we picked our way along the rocky coastline south of the beach. I was trying to keep my diving to depths where Tracy could still somewhat see me from the surface. Eventually, I moved a little further away from Tracy and kept diving while she was snorkeling in the shallows. On this particular dive (you can see in the video) I was on the bottom on some rocks, just waiting and staying still, when nearing the end of my breath-hold I started moving my head more and looking around in anticipation of starting for the surface. I saw a large triggerfish approaching me from my left. I began to slowly align my speargun. Just as I was almost lined up on it, the trigger started turning around to its left and I took my shot. Heading to the surface, I saw that the trigger was securely on my line and swimming in an arc toward the surface. When I got my head above water, I started looking around for and calling my cousin to come to see my catch. I said, "I shot a huge friggin' fish!" I turned my camera off after this as she was a decent distance away and I wanted to swim the fish closer to her so she could see as I pulled it in and put it down. Once I neared her, I pulled the still-alive trigger to me with my float line, got my hands on it, used my dive knife to display the biting power to my cousin (put the blade sideways in the mouth and showed her why you keep fingers away from the bitey end of triggers!), and then worked on braining it. I got it on the stringer that was attached to my buoy and removed my shaft from the fish. It looked even bigger hanging on my stringer like that! I kept diving for a little while but realized the Sea of Cortez had already given me my gift for the day, so swam my way back to the beach, a happy camper! My spearo friend Anna Sara was elated as well to see my catch when I swam back to the beach with it!