Rules about touching the marine life

[mongoose]

I will confess to tapping a big crab on the back of his shell to get him to raise his claws, and lightly touching the antennae of a big lobster, making him scoot(lightning-quick) back into his hole. In retrospect, might not have been such a hot idea.

What if a giant alien came along while I'm hanging out drinking beer in my backyard and started shooting at my feet with his death ray, causing me to run screaming back into the house?

I deliberatly ran over a rat this morning, though. I hate those *&$^# things.

 

[Uncle Pug]

What is a Cabezon? Is that another name for a scorpionfish?

It is a big fish with a nasty attitude. They will attack if you swim too close to them. Sometimes they get angry for no apparent reason. I remember seeing one pick up a 2" diameter guide line off the bottom and just start shaking it violently (they don't like visitors.) If that had been someone's regulator hose it would have been really interesting to watch.

 

[miketsp]

Many DMs I know will tell people not to touch and then themselves touch a whole series of things along the dive.
The more conscientious ones do actually place things back exactly as they found them.
The key word here is "exactly". Believe it or not even something as unintelligent looking as a starfish actually uses quite a complex algorithm to obtain nutrients by sweeping the ocean floor in an optimised manner and just by moving it a few feet may put it into an area that has just been swept and deprive it of nutrients for some time.

 

[Rookie_J]

even though i'm new to this, i've never found the attraction to harrassing the lil creatures. my first dive i was lucky to find a puffer down at the bottom of a big barrel sponge, when i pointed it out to my DM. he immediately pulled the lil fella out of his home to make him blow up.

i don't think the lil puffer liked it much..


i think it would be very cool to have dolphins/ sea lions/ or manatees come close enough to reach out and steal a touch. but i truly feel that is a different situation.

 

[kabluton]

even though i'm new to this, i've never found the attraction to harrassing the lil creatures. my first dive i was lucky to find a puffer down at the bottom of a big barrel sponge, when i pointed it out to my DM. he immediately pulled the lil fella out of his home to make him blow up.

i don't think the lil puffer liked it much..


i think it would be very cool to have dolphins/ sea lions/ or manatees come close enough to reach out and steal a touch. but i truly feel that is a different situation.

I don't want to get in this huge heated debate about what stresses marine life out and causes them "emotional harm". How do we, as humans, know? We live in an environment completely different from them and what would cause us stress may not cause them stress at all. Remember, most creatures are in a fight for their life every day. It is either eat or be eaten for them. Survival of the fittest.

I would imagine that most creatures we see have had many narrow escapes from predators. Somehow I don't think that mildly harrassing a damselfish is going to stress it to the point of death. I would bet he is quite happy we are not eating him. Why do most people feel the larger animals are better equipped to deal with us interracting with them? Maybe they don't like it either. We will certainly never no for sure.

That's my opinion anyway but I am definitely no expert.

 

[H2Andy]

i don't think the lil puffer liked it much..

you know, they've been known to bite your finger off if disturbed...

happened to a guy in Jupiter, Florida, not that long ago

 

[Corigan]

you know, they've been known to bite your finger off if disturbed...

happened to a guy in Jupiter, Florida, not that long ago

I wouldn't doubt it. Their beaks are really strong. When I used to have a puffer in my aquarium I would feed him snails. He would rip right through their shells.

Matt

 

[JoeFL]

you know, they've been known to bite your finger off if disturbed...

happened to a guy in Jupiter, Florida, not that long ago

Sure did... scroll all the way to the bottom... (warning, graphic image)

http://www.jupiterdivecenter.com/divereport.html

 

[Corigan]

Might want to warn people there is a graphic/bloody picture at the bottom of that page of what the puffer did.

Matt

 

[JoeFL]

done... I didn't think about that when I posted it. It is pretty greusome.