My encounter with a Green Moray

[GreggS]

Maybe because it was dangerous. The fact that you did not recognize the danger does not mitigate it.

I never said it wasn't dangerous. I'm not an idiot. I just said I wasn't scared. But I was being cautious. I did take some precautions such as keeping my camera hand firmly gripped around the handle so it would not have easy access to my fingers and keeping my other hand well away from it. I also kept the camera as close to its face as I could except where I had to flip it around the eel in order to maintain the camera between us, which you can see me do in the video. At no time did I provoke or attempt to touch it.

We all take calculated risks. Diving is inherently dangerous in and of itself, but yet we do it. Another thing we do without putting much thought into it is driving. We take our lives and well being into our own hands everytime we pull out of our driveway or parking area. We never know when that next moron or drunk driver will be coming our way. Most of us aren't scared to drive, we're (hopefully) all just being cautious.

What is life without a little risk? Boring, that's what.

And are you trying to tell me you wouldn't have taken the risk and done the same thing given the opportunity?

I've also witnessed DMs capturing lionfish and feeding them to eels. I've seen how they can rip into the lionfish. I actually have video of that as well. So I'm under no allusions that interacting with Green Morays can't be dangerous.

 

[CT-Rich]

When I was diving in Belize, they were constantly killing any lionfish that were found. On one occassion a reef shark showed up and they hid the dead lion fish in the reef for the shark to find, rather than have it sniffing around the divers.

Last month in Florida, i was diving with someone that was spearfishing and a nurse shark showed up and wanted his bagged catch. After getting poked in the nose several times (the shark, not the diver), he gave up his catch. I can't imagine this was the sharks first encounter and I am sure he will be more persistent in the future.

 

[grf88]

When I was diving in Belize, they were constantly killing any lionfish that were found. On one occassion a reef shark showed up and they hid the dead lion fish in the reef for the shark to find, rather than have it sniffing around the divers.

Last month in Florida, i was diving with someone that was spearfishing and a nurse shark showed up and wanted his bagged catch. After getting poked in the nose several times (the shark, not the diver), he gave up his catch. I can't imagine this was the sharks first encounter and I am sure he will be more persistent in the future.

My very first encounter with a shark was one looking for food. I think it was the Benwood wreck and I was the first one in. As soon as I reached the wreck I felt a nudge in my side and looked down to see the head of a shark under my arm. It turned out to be a friendly nurse shark that had been fed by divers but I did not know that at the time.

 

[tarzana]

In my decades of diving I have found it rare for a moray to even approach-- EXCEPT for the Maldives where they were ferocious! I got bit twice on my hand by the same one and others had nips at their wetsuits and gloves!

 

[twistedt]

I was diving in Key Biscayne, Miami this past summer and came across this green moray eel. She blended into the environment so well that she caught me off guard. Full dive here -

 

[js1221]

My very first encounter with a shark was one looking for food. I think it was the Benwood wreck and I was the first one in. As soon as I reached the wreck I felt a nudge in my side and looked down to see the head of a shark under my arm. It turned out to be a friendly nurse shark that had been fed by divers but I did not know that at the time.

Had a similar experience in Roatan. They also spear and feed the lion fish to sharks and morays. In this case it was a very friendly nurse shark that was swimming right up to divers in the group, and then moving throughout the group looking for a handout. I like nurse sharks, they are one of my favorites, so I enjoyed the encounter. I would not have enjoyed a similar encounter with a moray, I prefer to see the in their hole and not swimming up to me.