Things That Almost Bit You

[Dr. Lecter]

The Sea Tiger wreck on Oahu has grates welded over the hatches into the lower holds, with a smallish, diver-sized square cut out in a corner of one grate. One must either go head or (more awkwardly) feet first through the small opening and, with the hatch edges protruding down as they do, one cannot see the inside ceiling of the hold immediately around the hatch from the outside.

As I began my descent down through the cutout on a recent night dive, I came face to face -- maybe 3" or so away -- with the yawning white mouth of a large green Moray eel. He had apparently found some kind of purchase for most of his length in the decaying ceiling and was dangling his head down right next to the cutout, but not so far down that I saw him when I lit it up as I approached.

Whether he resented the sudden close intrusion or was simply feeling amorous, I'll never know...but it occurred to me as I furiously backed away from his advancing jaws that I didn't even know I could back kick at that angle, much less so fast. I decided that the port side passageway might be a better penetration point, since its only biological obstruction was a sleeping giant sea turtle, and am now much more careful when sticking my head into wrecks.

 

[koozemani]

Sea lions. I ignore them and they take offence to it. I've had my head nibbled on on more than one occasion.

 

[JamesK]

My wife when she saw how much I spent on my last Light Monkey HID.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Don't stick your fingers into unknown places underwater. That's the rule for avoiding bites. Also, avoiding the harassment of sea life is a good habit too.

I have been bitten (playfully) by tons of sea lions and one seal.

 

[lindenbruce]

I was feeding the guts of your common black Sea Urchin to a Wolf Eel one day around the Channel Islands in So-Cal. Well, I guess the eel got curious about what was feeding it as it slid past the urchin and was sniffing my gloved hand instead to see if that was more palatable. Well, I dropped the urchin guts and backed away nice and s l o w. Got lucky and never did that again. B

 

[g1138]

Aside from the occasional harbor seal nomming on my Jet fins; I swear those thing are like dog toys to them. I was working a summer kids program at the local aquarium. We took kids into our outdoor 8ft man made tidepool and led them on in water tours.
One of the biggest hypes for the kids is to see a Monkey Face Prickleback eating sea lettuce from our hands. Sometimes you can get lucky and get them to swim all the way out.

Well I did just that one day. Kinda teased the biggest one, named Fred. Well Fred got fed up and gummed my thumb in addition to the sea lettuce.


On another unrelated dive, my buddy bit me. I was fooling around on our safety stop and gave her a Windshield Wiper. Where you cup their mask with both hands and run your tongue all along the lens, finishing it off with a little knuckle rub in one spot to give it that zealous shine.
Well I turned my back after that to laugh with the rest of my team and she came up and bit me on the neck. They say I screamed like an 8-year-old girl receiving her first pony, but I remember no such thing.

 

[oreocookie]

A couple of weeks ago, I had a sergeant major trying to dine on my fin tip in Bonaire. That was amusing to watch as he'd "chomp" down on it, back up a couple of inches then come back for another bite.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I was freedive spearfsihing in the Bahamas in relatively shallow water of like 35 feet and was a hundred yards away from the boat and everyone else. Two reef sharks had been hanging around, one about 3 feet long and the other maybe 5 ft. The larger one was considerably less than 100 lbs, so i was not really worried, plus they would not come closer than 30 ft from me.

So I chased down this one small snapper (holding my breath of course) and was pretty much out of time and made a long shot with my spear sling. I made a bad shot and the fish was impaled near the tail and was thrashing around. Normally i would swim to the end of the shaft, grab the fish and immobilize it, then head for the surface.

However, I was spent, having arose at 3: 00 am and driving across to the Bahamas in the early morning and then diving all day. I grabbed the butt end of the shaft and left the fish dangling from the other end, with the flopper preventing him from sliding off. As I ascended, i saw BOTH sharks rocketing in at the fish. I figured this fish was history, so I dropped the shaft during the ascent when the sharks were just a few feet from the fthrashing fish. The shaft and fish began to sink and I was just a little upset that I was gonna lose the fish.

To my utter surprise, both sharks turned from the fish and came rocketing toward me as I scambled toward the surface. They had their mouths open and the larger one was one foot from my face in an instant. I instinctively began punching it in the head, but was not hitting it that hard because he was so close to me. I probably delivered 3-4 blows in 2 seconds. I was completely freaked out, but continued the scamble toward the surface, When I hit the surface, both calves went into full blown spasms (you would think the hamstrings would cramp) but it was the calves. I screamed shark! and then they just immediately turned and shot down and took the fish (that was now laying on the bottom on my spear).

 

[KeithG]

It was a rainy day. (sorry, regional joke.. But i thought it fit the spirit this thread has taken)

Several disturbing encounters to relate.

1) icky! Had a (very) small octopus reach out and glom on to my hand during a night dive. Yes it was scary. How do I get this thing off me? But a memory I hope I never forget.

2) startling. Had a massive (at least 3 inches) damsel fish strike my mask while I was staring into an algae covered coral head. Lots of bubbles, no damaging bodily emissions. Took a while to get my bouyancy back under control.

3) annoying. Bermuda chub. Repeated head strikes while hanging on the hang bar at the end of the dive. Apparently not relevant since my dive buddy had it way worse. She was nipped at least once. With several other near misses. Could have been fatal. She was lucky to escape with no permanent injuries!

4) things larger than a cabbage... Never happened as I swim away very fast


That said, I look forward to having masses of cleaner shrimp and blennies forage on my hands. It gets annoying when they want to clean my camera instead. Real hard to get a good shot of the Fish on my strobe arm.

 

[TSandM]

We used to have a regular member here named DoItEasy. He contacted me about coming out from the Midwest to dive in Seattle. He also told me to be gentle with him, because he was afraid of fish. So, of course, I arranged to take him to Edmonds, where the ling cod run about five feet long, and the front end is all teeth . . . But we never got to the giant ling cod, because he was attacked almost immediately by one of the most feared predators in Puget Sound.

In about ten feet of water, he spied a Sunflower Sea Star. They're amazing animals, a couple of feet across on average, and with twenty or more arms. They come in brilliant colors of red, orange, yellow and purple, and he couldn't resist the one he'd found, so he had to reach down and touch it. He didn't know the back of the star is covered in little grasping pincers (pedicellariae) that glommed onto his dive glove and would NOT let go. He pulled his hand back, and the starfish came with it. He shook his hand as hard as one can shake something underwater, but the starfish stayed right with him. He eventually pried it off on a rock, and when we ended the dive, he said, "Why didn't you warn me about that vicious predator?"

About two months later, our local dive news magazine ran an article on Sunflower stars, entitled, "Vicious Predator." I sent it to Tony . . .