Last day, last dive on Bonaire – unreal aggressive Hawksbill encounter

[EnronX]

Guys, just got back to Den Leman and my adrenaline is still pumping like you wouldn’t believe…my girlfriend and I are going to write now what just happened: For our final dive of this trip we decided to do something off the beaten path and chose to do a twilight dive out between Lighthouse & Red Slave (specifically off of the new radar tower, heading due south) Getting out past the breakers and out to the reef edge was a real effort as the surf had kicked up and we spent ~10 minutes just fighting current to get to 50 feet. We entered the water at 6:15pm and by twilight we enjoyed seeing 2 very large green morays, a few nice grouper and a lionfish sighting; at this point I already considered the dive a success and we ready to turn around and battle with the waves and head back to the truck.

25 minutes into the dive I turned to look into the blue (due south) and saw what looked like a good sized turtle…was very excited naturally as we had seen a few on our previous dive @ 1000 Steps. What I didn’t realize is that it was probably 30-40 feet away when I saw it. As it swam closer towards us the thing just got bigger and bigger until it was about 10 feet away, and this thing was just massive!
He kept on a straight course and was really moving fast…I got my girlfriends attention and we both watched as it swam at us…this is the point where things got weird as I’ve encountered wild turtles in a half-dozen different countries and they either act aloof or avoid divers by swimming in another direction. This turtle kept its fast course and came in directly towards me. This Hawksbill was at least 5.5 feet long from head to tail and a solid 30” across. It’s head was just as big as my own, if not bigger. As it came within reach of us I estimated it weighed at least 200-220lbs. At this moment I guess I just was still waiting for it to veer course and head on it’s own way passed us…but instead it began to circle us in a tight 3 foot diameter, it circled us a few more times and then came straight forward towards my face, it reached it's beak within just an inch or two from my mask…Obviously my girlfriend was screaming through her regulator and I could see how incredibly panicked she was, and I’ll be honest it was absolutely intimidating to have this big thing pushing its beak towards my mask as I tried to push it away. I used my right arm to keep myself between the Hawksbill and my girlfriend and I used my left arm to keep shielding my face from the incoming turtle…After about 30 seconds of pushing against him with my arm I lifted my fin up and attempted to kick him away. Thank God the kick worked a bit and he immediately swam to the surface to get air (we were at 30 feet at this point) but unfortunately in all the thrashing about I knocked my poor girlfriend’s mask off slightly.
Once the big Hawksbill got air he swam right back down to us and resumed the exact same behavior as the first pass – he circled around both of us, getting tighter and tighter until he thrust his beak back into my arm and up to my face. This time I was getting really upset and worried about a deteriorating situation (dark water, current and tides kicking up and still a long swim back to Red Slave.) I had to kick him at least 2 more times hard with my fin before he broke off again and this time just move about 10 feet away and watched us circling now from a distance. The entire incident lasted about 6-8 minutes but it was exhausting, a bit terrifying but especially disorienting…with all the circling, fighting and drifting I knew I had no choice but to surface immediately and see just how far we had moved off course and get a bearing back to the beach. I had my girlfriend hold down to some rocks while I hit the surface.
Thank God the turtle never came back within 10-15 feet of us on our swim back onto the beach South East of the Red Slave huts…we both got to the shore around 7:15pm with about 1000 PSI and pretty much collapsed on the beach from the incredible adrenaline rush of the incident and major relief of being back on land, without a scratch.
The first thing we said to each other once we caught our breaths was, “nobody is going to believe us that what just happened actually happened” – We both are accomplished divers with 150+ dives but have never experienced (nor ever even heard) of an experience with a turtle of that size/attitude/behavior.
Can somebody please tell me what the HELL could have provoked such a reaction/behavior from a Hawksbill? Is there any record or evidence of a turtle that large acting so aggressively towards 2 divers?
I’ll write more once I upload this to Scubaboard and get a chance to talk to Jerry at Bonaire Dive & Adventure. Please don’t assume or accuse us of harassing this turtle into this confrontation…he came straight at us from the deep blue and we did not try to ride or grab him in the slightest.

Nate

 

[morecowbells]

Wow! What a completely bizarre incident. My guess is that perhaps there was a female near by and he was trying to put a squeeze on the competition. I am glad that you both made it back to the shore safely. Thanks for sharing. I would like to know what the dive op had to say about this incident.

 

[AggieDiver]

Another possibility was that he mistook your clear mask skirt for a jellyfish and wanted a meal...

 

[SailNaked]

well maybe he wanted to mate with you, but I suspect the clear mask and some nearsightedness on his part. long trip from Venezuela he was hungry.

 

[cdolphin]

 

[reefdiva]

Last summer we were ending a dive at one of the southern sites (maybe Red Beryl but can't remember exactly) and in about 30 feet of water I looked to my right (towards shore) and thought I was in a science fiction movie because there on the sand, looking directly at us was a hawksbill of just about the same size dimensions you gave. I was startled enough by it that I was not about to hang around to see what it did! My husband and I had never seen one of that size on Bonaire but when we told a friend on island she said that particular turtle is often seen at the southern sites. She did not mention aggressive behavior though!

Glad to know that you made it back to shore -- I was sure you were going to say you had blown through all of your air during the encounter!

 

[AggieDiver]

If you ever go to Coz and dive with Christi, ask for a trip over to Las Tortugas. It is a site on the east side of the channel with enormous sea turtles as far as the eye can see. We stopped counting when we went past 50 on a single dive. On the second dive over there, we also saw the largest green moray I have ever seen. His neck was about the diameter of a basketball and the sections of him that i could see added up to about 6 feet of length and there was more that I couldn't see.

 

[DiverVince]

Enron..I have seen very large turtles that size but never encountered the behavior you outlined.
Frankly, you never know what's going to happen or what creatures you will encounter when you enter the ocean around Bonaire. My advice; consider it a learning experience.
As far as a rationale for the atypical behavior; really, haven't got a clue.

 

[jd950]

Since it was Bonaire, maybe he was trying to steal your dive gear?

eepwalla:

 

[fuggler]

That sounds intense! We're on the island right now too, leaving Saturday. Didn't encounter anything like that, although I was scared of the 5-ft long tarpon that followed us around Hilma on a twilight dive the other night! Glad you guys made it out safe. How deep were you when you saw that lionfish?