Look but Don't Touch!!

[quikcolin]

I found his take on a Q/A website where he talks about the eel encounter...

Is it true you once had a close encounter with a Moray Eel, what happened?


There used to be a famous Moray called Scarface at East of Eden in the Similans and a lot of instructors and dive guides would take food down for her, and feed her in front of their guests. I was careless one day, and wasn't paying attention when I was removing food from a plastic bag. Scarface came around behind me, could smell the food, and accidentally latched onto my thumb. I tried to prize her jaws open and get her off me but it was no good. Within seconds there was a sickening popping sound and my thumb was bitten clean off. She swam away and that was the last I saw of my thumb. It was my fault, firstly for feeding a wild animal, and secondly for being careless. My dive buddy Bex was holding my camera and managed to get some footage of it happening.

 

[grantwiscour]

I treat every fish/animal in the ocean like I would an unknown dog on the streets. I don't know if the animal is prone to bite, attack, etc. so I keep my hands to myself.

I'm glad that the person is "ok" now...short a toe however.

 

[Doc]

This has been around a while- sorry- I aint buying it.

An Eel simply doesn't have the jaw strength to do this. <- period

I believe somebody (maybe in the dive industry) lost their digit in an industrial accident.

There are also several hallmarks of a "fake video" here that are used to separate the phonies from the real ones- just watch one of the many tv shows on the subject of "viral videos" and how they come to be. This video has several indicators... from steady and on-subject to herky-jerky and then pointed very steadily away... off subject.

Great story, fun to watch, been around for ever. I (and many others) still think it's horse-hockey.

 

[tridacna]

Not an animal behavior expert, but I have to guess that the moray is going to associate divers with a free meal for a while, and any unsuspecting divers getting to close are going to be in for a surprise.

Wrong guess. Eels are virtually blind. It did not see a diver - rather a smelly morsel of food. You would have to carry some food to make the eel interested again.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

This is why I am adamant about not feeding animals in the sea. The behaviors that result cannot be called an "attack." It's a follow up search for food. I disapprove of all feeding, but here, the "dumbass" factor emerges as we see a diver feeding food that looks like a finger to a large eel, close up, while holding it in his fingers. Then he holds and waves the empty food bag with his fingers, no doubt getting the food odor on his hand even more, and then loses a digit. There's a real surprise. I hope the eel didn't get sick or injured trying to digest the thumb. I have more to say on feeding sea life, , but it's in my blog on "Please don't feed the Animals," so not reprint here.
DivemasterDennis

 

[AaronRiot]

This has been around a while- sorry- I aint buying it.

An Eel simply doesn't have the jaw strength to do this. <- period

I believe somebody (maybe in the dive industry) lost their digit in an industrial accident.

There are also several hallmarks of a "fake video" here that are used to separate the phonies from the real ones- just watch one of the many tv shows on the subject of "viral videos" and how they come to be. This video has several indicators... from steady and on-subject to herky-jerky and then pointed very steadily away... off subject.

Great story, fun to watch, been around for ever. I (and many others) still think it's horse-hockey.

Interesting, you're right about the camera hallmarks... Horse-hockey or not, I think it teaches a good lesson. Leave the critters alone. Although I'm sure it has deterred all of zero people from doing what they were going to do anyway, and if anything has taught some folks that you can feed an eel.

After watching that vid yesterday I bounced through a good number of other vids of divers molesting turtles, sharks, more eels, getting in the war path of barracudas.

People like that annoy the crap out of me..

Reminds me of a quote... "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." Douglas Adams

 

[tridacna]

An Eel simply doesn't have the jaw strength to do this. <- period

The story may well be horse hockey. But a Moray easily has the ability to amputate a human finger.

To wit, this from a personal correspondence with Dr. Richard Pyle. Question was whether a Moray could bite off a human finger.

"Yes, a very large Moray could do that. In the 1950’s or 1960’s, Dr. Richard Brock was attacked by a large Gymnothorax javanicus and it bit the end of one his fingers off (he saved it and it was re-attached). My Friend John Earle was once bitten very badly on the hand by the same species, and it could easily have bitten off a finger.

Aloha,
Rich"

 

[fjpatrum]

I think more importantly is where the bite occurred. I suspect a moray could quite easily bite through muscle and sinew, at which point, the finger just comes off as there's nothing holding it in place any more. Could it bite through a bone the size of a human male's thumb? I don't know, but I do know, once the muscle's shredded, the bones separate quite easily.

 

[Doc]

I have seen the tips of fingers bitten off twice by Eels.

Joints, especially the thumb? I'm standing by my statement.

Eels are designed for grasping, never allowing a release, and swallowing whole. Not much for crushing, sawing and severing.

 

[tridacna]

Elsevier

Here's a little something to remind people what they can do.