Animals behaving badly (tell your stories)

[Mauifish]

I call this guy Sean Penn, because of his dislike for underwater paparazzi. I was taking several photos of him and he must have gotten tired of my DS-125 flashing in his eye. He decided to take matters into his own hands - or tentacles, as it was. He reached out and grabbed my housing with six of his arms. I'm sure my lens port was under his mantle, right where I might have taken a photo of his mouth - but I couldn't take a photo. The tip of one of those arms was hold down the zoom button on my Oly, so I couldn't actuate the shutter. Although he wasn't particularly large, he pulled with amazing strength, trying to remove my camera from my hands. I pulled harder and he let go when he was about to be totally removed from his crevice. I then let the poor fella rest in peace.

David

It does look tired, celebritys need their beauty sleep

 

[AUTiger]

Apparently this green moray was used to being fed. The divemaster brought a bucket (empty large bottle with door cut into it) but there was no food left. He kept putting the bottle in the face of the eel (who started free swimming). The eel became agitated and started swimming at the other divers and nipping at fins. In this photo, he was coming my way and he might have seen his reflection in the lense port. He was coming straight at my mid-section, so I used the camera to steer him away from me. I took this photo just before redirecting him.

I think he looks kind of like a big puppy dog!

Here's another cool photo of the same encounter. It would have been one of my best yet if the other diver hadn't been exactly on the opposite side of the eel.

 

[offroaddiver]

if people on this site know of ken kirby a local instructor you've heard his blue gill story. If not let me tell it.
He was teaching a class in one of the local quarries and this blue gill kept coming in and swimming right infront of his face. he swatted at it and it would swim off. a couple of minutes later, the fish came back. He had had enough of this fish. So he took his slate and smacked the fish. All of a sudden he feels a sharp pain and scares the crap out of his students lunging towards them.
Alot of people reading this are saying that's complete bs. Before Ken sold the shop he still had the wetsuit that had a small bite hole out of the seat of the wetsuit.
This is also the same quarry that the old man who owned it, made the mistake of tossing a pan of dogfood over the divers in hopes of the fish coming to the divers. They did and they nipped a couple of people's ears. The next dive everyone had to wear a hood to keep from being bit.

 

[drbill]

...and then the Mantis shrimp handed Dr. Bill a script!

By the way, Dr. Bill, saw you photos of the senorita and kelpfish in the March California Diving News. Nice behavior. Were those stills from a movie?

David

Yes, it's from my "Munching and Mating in the Macrocystis" DVD. It will also be part of a submission to the Long Beach SCUBA Show.

 

[drbill]

...He decided to take matters into his own hands - or tentacles, as it was.

David

My octopus specialist friends tell me arms is the correct term. I use tentacles frequently (not my own, just when referring to an octopus' arms).

 

[kapula]

Great pics AUTiger. If you aren't against photoshopping it is fairly easy to loose that bloke behind that moray. With such a blue background even a photoshop novice such as myself could propably do the job

 

[IaDiverJ&L]

My wife and I, Had a few Triggers bite at us, on a shore dive in Ft Lauderdale, this past January. I had one chewing on the black part of my scooter, and nibbling on my mask. But I look over at one, by my wife, and I saw it bite her temple. When we got out of the water, she was bleeding there. The bite mark was sore for a week or so. It looked like the bite mark on the an earlier post
I have a pic in my photo gallery (of me with the trigger)

 

[drbill]

Here's a quick still capture from the mantis shrimp footage today. Haven't edited it yet, but this gives you an idea of what the critter looks like out of its hole.

 

[JMD123]

Its out of focus, but this small turtle in Maui got upset when I swam by him/her.

Also in Maui I once took a photo of an eal. I normally dont look through the eye cup I just stick the camera out at an arms length. After I took the shot I turned away to another subject. When I looked down the eal was free swimming inbetween my legs. Nothing happened other than my ability to stay calm being tested.