Question Conger (eel) bites

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Has anyone ever been bitten or attacked by a conger (eel)?

It's this little thing we have on wrecks in Europe, the larger ones are 2 meters / 6 feet. They usually hide in holes on wrecks, if you see one swimming free you politely backtrack. I'm wondering if anyone ever got into trouble, either in a tight(er) compartment in a wreck or by bumping into one of them in poor visibility.

 

[MarkA]

Conger eel attack on Irish diver

A couple of years ago I featured a link of a clip from BBC program featuring conger eels on the west Irish coast, and admitted that whilst other fear sharks or jellyfish, my irrational open water w…

loneswimmer.com

 

[Still Kicking]

Not as a diver but when I was a kid in the UK.

The family took me to one of those small, dank, dark aquariums that used to be common in touristy seaside towns In England. I was fascinated by all things aquatic so I loved it.

This one had a large trough running around the room about 3' deep. No lighting... just dark water. I leaned over, my face about 6" from the water, peering to see what was beneath. Suddenly the head of a large eel breached the surface, inches from my nose. I screamed and jumped back.

"Oh yeah, watch out for the conger!" the attendant says.

 

[coldwaterglutton]

 

[Wibble]

In a submarine yesterday with loads of congers around, one getting a little snappy so I dropped a pebble on its nose and it quickly retreated back in its pipe.

There's a lot of congers around the wrecks this weekend; mid English Channel, smaller and rarely dived wrecks. On one wreck there was whole families of congers in a single crevice. One even resting on top of a lobster, obviously there must be some symbiosis going on there (have seen this behaviour before). The tens of thousands of bib (25cm/10" long fish) on those wrecks, so plenty for the congers to chow down on.

 

[Russjstewart]

Third or fourth hand story from about 45 or 50 years ago. Back in the 1920’s a J class sub scuttled at a nearby Yacht Club as part of a breakwater. Itis still there. Any way by the 70’s it was in poor shape lots of missing plates, broken pipes etc. The story goes a diver was filming in it for a local TV show when he upset the resident southern conger, resulting in a trip to hospital and lots of stitches. I never had the urge to dive it after hearing the story

 

[Wibble]

Color Pattern

xkcd.com

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

In a submarine yesterday with loads of congers around, one getting a little snappy so I dropped a pebble on its nose and it quickly retreated back in its pipe.

There's a lot of congers around the wrecks this weekend; mid English Channel, smaller and rarely dived wrecks. On one wreck there was whole families of congers in a single crevice. One even resting on top of a lobster, obviously there must be some symbiosis going on there (have seen this behaviour before). The tens of thousands of bib (25cm/10" long fish) on those wrecks, so plenty for the congers to chow down on.

A very intriguing torpedo loading hatch on a sub and a recent encounter inside Salsette led me to this question …