Animals behaving badly (tell your stories)

[PermanentlyNarced]

I am new to UW photography and I am amazed by some of the pictures that are posted on this site. I just hope to be half as good as you guys when I grow up. I am especially amazed by the close ups of subjects that I consider potentially dangerous and wonder how you escaped unscathed. One of my favorite subjects are green moray eels and would love to get a good close up shot, but then I see the teeth and decide that am plenty close enough.

So, I thought it would be interesting to hear some of your stories about when you got a little too close and the subject took offense and decided to force you to back off a tad. Any stories of bites, scrapes, damage to equipment, or loss of digits? Or maybe just close enough of a call to cause your wetsuit to suddenly warm up?

 

[1_T_Submariner]

I had a Bass that frequently spawns (I think that is what it is doing) on top a rock crusher in a quarry bite my finger. No blood but startling.

 

[SeaYoda]

We have some wrasse around here that like to get in your face while you take pictures. They tend to nibble your fingers if you hold your arms at your sides when you swim. I thought this was cute until I was setting up for a shot one day, paying attention to only subject and camera, and one of those wrasse popped me on the earlobe with a bite that shocked me and stung like the dickens. I watch out for those guys now - they may be no "Jaws" but they've earned my respect.

 

[Cecil]

Morays are very, very near sighted and you can get amazingly close without pissing them off. The other thing to remember is that digital cameras are at arm's length away so the worse they will do is nip the camera. This is not to say you should piss off the wild life and if they seem bothered, back off.

 

[Jetwrench]

I was at the u/w cam on Bonaire posing for my last dive appearance and this seargent major kept hitting my arm. Really no pain, but after the forth or fifth hit I noticed my arm was bleeding. Sometimes the little critters are the most agressive, especially when guarding eggs like this guy was. Never had a problem getting close to eels, but I have heard from someone on Bonaire who was chased by a large green moray. She was not hurt, and still can't figure out why it was so agressive

 

[CheddarChick]

Just outside the Marriott beach breakers in Curacao, is a 3x3 foot wodden hatch cover about half buried in sand. The first time we went past it last year a tiny black & white fish ?wrasse? came out to look us over as we went by. On the way back I stopped to get a closer look at him/her. The little bugger attacked like I was trying to steal his hatch cover home. This behavior would happen everytime we went past the site. It made me feel like I was King Kong and he was the airplane, shooting all around us...Very territorial little beastie....

 

[drbill]

Our SoCal garibaldis are very aggressive when they are defending their nests. I've had several of them come out and grab my camera housing by the light pod and shake it. Makes for funny video footage.

 

[mike_s]

I've got some pics of two "Lobsters behaving badly" that I took a couple years ago.

Does that count?

It didn't look like an 'attack'. I would say it was a 'consensual encounter'.

 

[Cacia]

lobster porn? Monk seals having "non" consensual encounters can be entertaining too.

this shark zoomed in behind Onfloat in the cave at Baby Barge, I'm not sure what happened in there. Triggers can be more dangerous though

 

[kapula]

I haven't had (luckily) any really close encounters (counting my fingers) with titan triggerfishes but I've been triggered every once a while. They get really territorial when they're nesting and you need to pay attention to them when diving in places that have them. I've heard stories of titan triggers biting ears and seen some attacks on fins. Few times I have had to put my fin towards some territorial titan for it to chew but luckily I've been able to swim away fast enough for him

Never had any problems with moray eels or sea snakes. Some anemonefishes (especially skunk anemones) seem to hate inon strobes Nearly impossible to get a shot of those inon-haters as they're constantly attacking my strobe.

Cleaner wrasses can be vicious. A dm buddy of mine in koh Tao had one attacking his ear canal! Now he really keeps an eye out for those. Let's say it wasn't very gentle cleaning... the fish practically got stucked in his ear canal biting it at the same time.