Attacked by ???

[drbill]

The Tahitians supposedly fear triggerfish more than sharks. Many triggers will defend an inverted cone above their nest site on the bottom, expanding outward as you approach the surface. Swim into that cone and risk having a chunk taken out of your leg. I've been attacked a few times, but when they saw the size of my German tree stumps they fled in terror.

 

[Zippsy]

I surrender.

 

[Deefstes]

I surrender.

LOL, this is starting to get quite funny. You have got me wondering now how true that theory really is. Dr. Bill, do you know perhaps how authentic it is or is there a chance of it just being a popular story that seems plausible and is promulgated by so many divers that it has been accepted as fact by now?

As far as the inverted cone goes, whenever I see fish trying to attack a nest to get to the eggs, most do come along the bottom and the triggers do chase them very far along the bottom.

Like I said, I can't claim to know fish. I have a fair bit of experience and a passable knowledge of birds though so I'm basically just extrapolating - often incorrectly I would imagine. I'm sure you are far more suited than me to comment on something like this.

Also, I would think a fish a meter away along the bottom is more of a threat than one two meters above.

True, but I think its also safe to say that a fish a meter away that have not spotted the nest yet poses less of a threat than the one that's two meters above and have spotted the nest. I was just hypothesizing that maybe a greater percentage of fishes approaching from above pose a threat as they are more likely to have spotted the nest. But again, this is not based on any solid observations, merely speculation.

 

[Sas]

I have been attacked by damselfish many times , once by a very small triggerfish and once by a blue ring octopus . The later was very strange behaviour and the only time I have felt threatened underwater. Seals can scare me when they appear all of a sudden (had them swim at me in low viz and it is quite a surprise when they swim at you!) but I know that to be playful behaviour not threatening. With the blue ring, it was at night and it leaped off the ground straight at my face with its tentacles out face hugger style. I wacked it with my torch and then it went for another go so I wacked it again (yes not nice thing to do to marine life but I did not want a blue ring biting my face). My buddy and I have never seen that behaviour before.

Other times I have not been sure about whether the critter was attacking or just acting odd include when a big Maori octopus jumped off a pylon at me. I was on my own that day - I have told my buddy to get any octopus attacks on me on video And another time a cuttlefish swam straight into my side but it quickly moved away again so I am not sure what it was doing...