A 70-year-old woman was impaled by the bill of a 100-pound sailfish that leapt out of the water and stabbed her as her companions were trying to reel it in on a boat near the Florida coast last week, authorities said.
The woman from Arnold, Maryland, was standing in the boat when two companions caught the sailfish and tried to bring it in on a fishing line about two miles offshore from Stuart, Florida, according to a report from the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
That's when the sailfish began to charge at the boat and then jumped out of the water, stabbing the woman in the groin area with its pointed bill.
The companions applied pressure to the wound, and the woman was taken to Stuart for medical treatment.
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The woman told deputies that the attack happened so fast that she didn't have time to react, according to the sheriff's office report.
Sailfish are among the fastest fish species in the ocean and, like the swordfish, are recognizable by their extended, pointed bills.
