RickI
Contributor
A photo of a messed up divers hand showed up online yesterday. A diver got hit while going after lobster off Palm Beach County. I sure hope the guy recovers fully and fast with minimal surgery and rehabilitation. Eels are common and can often be found in the same hole as lobster. No news there. You would think eel bites would be fairly common but over the years, I haven't heard of that many.
I started looking around online and found quite a few reports, photos and some videos dealing with attacks. Compared to the number of diving hours per year, still not that much but perhaps a bit more common than you might think. I started looking at some of the videos and started to reconsider some conclusions about eel behavior derived from over 40 years of interacting with them. One thing that stuck me was just how aggressive eels can be in the face of what may seem a minor irritation and how far they may swim in visiting retribution on an offending diver.
Some of the videos have been collected at the link below, along with some conclusions which have been reproduced below. This isn't rocket science, the conclusions could be reached through simple common sense and yet lots of us have violated some of these logical precautions hundreds of times over the years without problems. It seems likely just not all of us have escaped problems however.
Eel Rips Lobster Divers Hand & Other Attacks - FKA Kiteboarding Forums
I started looking around online and found quite a few reports, photos and some videos dealing with attacks. Compared to the number of diving hours per year, still not that much but perhaps a bit more common than you might think. I started looking at some of the videos and started to reconsider some conclusions about eel behavior derived from over 40 years of interacting with them. One thing that stuck me was just how aggressive eels can be in the face of what may seem a minor irritation and how far they may swim in visiting retribution on an offending diver.
Some of the videos have been collected at the link below, along with some conclusions which have been reproduced below. This isn't rocket science, the conclusions could be reached through simple common sense and yet lots of us have violated some of these logical precautions hundreds of times over the years without problems. It seems likely just not all of us have escaped problems however.
Eel Rips Lobster Divers Hand & Other Attacks - FKA Kiteboarding Forums
| "So, common factors, (there are likely others too), seem to include: 1. Food in the water, speared, from shark feeding or even feeding reef fish, particularly the eel itself. 2. Eel is excited and swimming erratically and perhaps coming in close for whatever reason 3. Eel followed too close and/or too long. They can show some pretty aggressive territorial response. 4. Eel is startled 5. Eels can decide to turn around and swim a good distance to attack a diver following what may seem to be a minor annoyance. 6. Eels commonly occur in holes with lobster. Anyone going after lobster should keep this in mind and checkout holes before going in there. Some say a lobster may keep an antennae bent backward if it is sharing a hole with an eel. Not sure this is always the case however. Snares and tickle sticks add distance but given some of the lengths eels may swim to nail a diver, perhaps not enough distance in all cases. 7. Once a eel decides to attack you there doesn't seem to be a lot that you can effectively do about it. 8. Eels can surprise you and bite with what may seem minimal provocation at times which is well worth remembering! What other eel attacks have you seen, what contributed to them and what should you avoid doing as a result?" |
