trouble with eels

[Earl E. Retire]

Anyone ever have any incidents with moray eels? I hear that they like to live in areas that are good for lobster hunting. Wondering if anyone has been bothered by these while hunting for bugs or other game.

EER:06:

 

[Lobsterboy]

I run into morays on occasion.
Last season, I was freediving one night in Laguna.
I went down to look under a ledge and saw a small lobster scurry off to the right of the hole, as I swung my light to check the left side a big moray popped his head out and opened his mouth WIDE.
I literally screamed in my snorkel and almost dumped in my wetsuit.
He didn't strike though but I wasn't sticking around to give him a chance.
They have some serious teeth.
I have read that they mostly just bluff like that but it works for me.

 

[MilitantMedic]

All of my eel encouters (which are numerous) have never resulted in actual injury to me or the eel. But I have *gently* pushed eels out of the way so I could reach/get a shot on a lobster/fish. I do know of one guy who did get bit, but he didn't really look in the hole first and proceded to stick his hand in...right into the Moray's mouth.

Other than that I typically feed the bigger eels the Hawaiian delicacy known as spam.

 

[CaptAdam]

Last year,,, i got bitten twice by an eel while leeding a dive. I thought i was i was far enough away from the eel,,, but it jumped out and bit strait to the bone of my hand. I have a couple of cool scars from it,,,but it wasnt the most pleasant dive. I got bit at 90 feet in the first five minutes of the dive. I was leading very high paying cutomers,,,so i kept leading a 45minuted dive with two ealbites on the palm of my hand...While i was going up the line...small fish were nibling at my palm,,,so many that it was impossible for them to go away,,,chewing the fat coming out the bone and hand..... What a dive.

 

[Earl E. Retire]

Last year,,, i got bitten twice by an eel while leeding a dive. I thought i was i was far enough away from the eel,,, but it jumped out and bit strait to the bone of my hand. I have a couple of cool scars from it,,,but it wasnt the most pleasant dive. I got bit at 90 feet in the first five minutes of the dive. I was leading very high paying cutomers,,,so i kept leading a 45minuted dive with two ealbites on the palm of my hand...While i was going up the line...small fish were nibling at my palm,,,so many that it was impossible for them to go away,,,chewing the fat coming out the bone and hand..... What a dive.

Wow, that's gnarly! So exactly how hard does an eel bite, CaptAdam? Sounds like pretty hard if it's leaving scars! Were you pointing out the eel to the other divers when it bit you? I'm trying to understand what not to do so I don't suffer the same fate.
EER

 

[Tom Winters]

Earl E. _ first off, I gotta tell you that your moniker just put me into thinking "Wile E. Coyote" - like you're giving up hunting roadrunners for lobsters now.
Eels don't bite all that hard, but their teeth point inwards. They chomp and then can start twisting themselves. They can leave a real jagged tear in your skin that is alsmost guaranteed to become infected. My wife has a friend who had her fingertip bit off by an eel on her very first dive and her ex lost part of a finger to another eel. So I'm real careful around her.
Eels pretty much leave you alone unless you go riling them up. Except for those nasty green ones, they're all pretty shy and retiring. And if you see one, maybe you don't need to go pointing at it too closely.
If you do managed to get chomped though, make sure you have an Acme Eel Remover though.

 

[mnj1233]

Seen many been bitten by none. My first instuctor told me the only time hed ever been bit in a 1000 dives is when he deserved it. Didnt elaborate but I think enuf said eh!!!

 

[LJinFLA]

A dive buddy of mine recently got a minor bite to his leg. Also, had a lobster in the snare and was begining to reach to grab him and a big eel came out of a neighboring hole in a flash and bit the tail of the bug right off!. Gone in a flash. The bug had just molted and had a soft shell. they can be wiley!

LJ

 

[dpbishop]

Morays look really gnarly when they open their mouth at you, but that's just the way they breathe; they are really pussycats. Some DIs I've known hand feed them to impress their students. Just be sure to look before you stick your hand in a hole.

 

[ggilmour]

Yep, stuck my hand in a hole for a bug and came out with an eel attached, it looked worse than it felt but I guess had it been bigger it may have been worse. Now I look first and then grab. Rumour has it that if the bugs feelers point back then it is sharing a hole with an eel and if they point forward it's not. Or something like that, just look first and it does not matter. I even carry a cannister light for the deep holes.