Marine life bites...or that's a moray

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

sundog once bubbled...
She told him she had been on a diving vacation in Roatan Honduras. . . . A 6-foot green moray surprised the woman diver, some distance away from the dm, by swimming up behind her as she neared the sandy bottom and proceeded to sink its teeth into her neck.

That sounds like the eel on the El Aguilar. I have some good shots of him trying to take a piece out of a videographer, which is only fair because he got some footage of the thing chasing me. I had no idea I could fin that fast.

Seriously, the wreck is dived daily, which means the eel is harassed daily. I have a lot more respect for those things then I used to.
 
On my 6th dive, I was doing a drift dive on Shark Canyon, W. Palm Beach, and came up solo (second dive, and I was on air, everyone else Nitrox).

I reach 15' and begin my safety stop, and glance off to the left, and about 20' away were at least 100 barracuda. They were packed so tightly, they looked like sardines, sans can. Just hovering there looking at me.

I was a bit nervous at first, but it was really an awesome experience.
 
I had a trigger fish nip at me a few times before. Come to find out, they are aggravated by the "snap" in fins. I seen some local fisherman spearing them this way with sling spears. They would entice them with their fins, then WHAM! Pretty neat.

But those little buggers have taken a couple of chunks out of my fins since.
 
I was attacked by a ling cod recently! They can get up to 60 inches and 105 lbs. They guard their egg masses this time of year, and I got too close. He came straight at my face, but luckily we both veered off. Another cod hit my arm when he didn't like me being where I was. And another diver was bit on the ankle - left a perfect impression of his mouth on the neoprene drysuit!

My fins were bitten repeatedly by a very friendly harbour seal who wanted to play with me. It was great, but made me a little nervous because he outweighed me, can go deeper, and doesn't need a reg to breathe... He was about 6 ft., 250 lbs. He stayed with us for our entire dive, and seemed to be having a great time nipping our fins, and darting around us. During our safety stop at 15 feet, he actually pulled my husband off the rock we were holding on to, and pulled him down about 5 feet by his fins.

I've also had an aggressive encounter with a very large wolf eel. He became nervous when my husband and I looked at him for too long. He suddenly sprang out of his den and lunged at my husband's face. Luckily, a swimming scallop happened to come near at that moment, and the eel veered off and snapped at the scallop instead. I know of one diver whose arm was broken in three places by a wolf eel bite; they are basically a huge swimming jaw. Our encounter happened at a very popular dive site, and many others are in the habit of feeding sea urchins to the eels.

A popular past time is to kiss wolf eels - literally! Take the reg out of your mouth and kiss them! I think this is incredibly stupid. From reading these posts, I'm even more convinced. Wolf eels probably aren't much different in temperament or power than morays. Keep your face out of their face and you might keep your face - intact!
 
Tried to get a better picture of him, so I tapped him on the nose...well he came out alright and bit me.

It was quite entertaining...

We were staying at a KOA in the Keys in February...prime population...Blue Heads (term for our older winter Florida residents)

Captain radios in that he had a diver that bitten by a moray eel. Captain's wife who ran the dive shop broadcasts his transmissons so she would stay informed what was going out there...When we arrived at the dock there must have been 150 blue heads waiting at the dock to see the chewed up diver!!!
 
sundog once bubbled...
It may be time to give up that Eau de Grouper cologne kjunheart.

LOOOOOOOOOOOL :D :D :D
 
Why just Friday I was ruthlessly attacked by a ferocious Microspathodon chrysurus with a bad attitude. Imagine that!
E. itajara
 
i have a cuda story, and a fish attack story.

1. on my 2nd dive we had to pass between two coral heads, and there standing guard were to big cuda's now we passed right between them following the DM on either side, just hovering, staring at us. scary!!

2. While diving in cozumel i was drifting around and i didn't see the chub swim up next to me and bite the top of my hand. didn't draw blood, but it left a O on the top of may hand that didn't go away for a few days.
 
Epinephelus once bubbled...
Why just Friday I was ruthlessly attacked by a ferocious Microspathodon chrysurus with a bad attitude. Imagine that!
E. itajara
HHHhhhhaaarrrr!
Rick
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom