DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #858: KELP BASS VS. MORAY
My frequent readers are probably aware that I use the phrase The Mutual Eating Society to refer to the ecological interactions that often dominate whether on land or in the sea. Yep, most critters gotta munch if they are to survive. You should all know that munching is critical to the continuation of the individual just as mating is critical to the continuation of the species.
While it is pretty cool to capture an unusual species on video, I am even more satisfied when I capture an incredible interaction on film (er, memory card these days). These may include a wide range of interactive behaviors. However, chowing down on another species seems to capture my attention most spectacularly.Mating does as well since I'm the king of fish porn.
Some species are not very exciting when they are feeding. I'm thinking of tube worms, barnacles and other filter feeders. I just don't feel the same blood lust with them since I can't see the fear and looks of horror on the faces of microscopic plankton as they get swept into the digestive tract. Watching a bat ray such up a Chaetopterus worm or a shark gobble up a fish is far more satisfying!
The ecological nexus that links the members of an ecosystem is full of such interactions. However, it isn't that often my reflexes were good enough to capture them. Usually the poor prey has disappeared into the predator's gullet by the time I press the record button on my camera. This is especially true during daytime when the light presents a myriad of different critters around me.
Diving at night, one often experiences a sort of tunnel vision. Dive and video lights just can't illuminate objects at any real distance so you are focused on what the beams do intercept. For that reason, many of my best feeding sequences were taken during the darkness. In our waters, morays (Gymnothorax mordax) and large kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus) comes out at night to chow down while many of their potential prey such as blacksmith (Chromis punctipinnis) are hiding in nooks and crannies, as fearful of the dark as a young child believing there is a monster under their bed.
I've had the perverted pleasure of filming many a moray or kelp bass and even octopuses capturing and munching on blacksmith as well as other goodies. The kelp bass, with their better vision, are probably more successful than the morays. I see the latter miss their target quite frequently... some such sequences can be highly amusing... although the moray doesn't seem to laugh!
Several years ago I was out on a night dive at Casino Point. I located a moray extending out of a hole and waited to see if it would lunge out to capture a nearby blacksmith. Instead, a large kelp bass entered the video frame and tried to bite the moray's head off! I guess that bass needed a pair of glasses. I have seen similar attempts a few times since this. Of course the bass never swallows the moray and both end up looking a little confused after the encounter!
I would kind of equate these brief battles to the cinematic competitions of Godzilla with King Kong and a host of other opponents. The Japanese sure seem to like to make these movies. Of course these battles may last 90 minutes or more. The two vicious predators in the battle I observed quit early and went on to search for defenseless blacksmith.
© 2020 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 850 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Large kelp bass chomping down on head of the moray.
My frequent readers are probably aware that I use the phrase The Mutual Eating Society to refer to the ecological interactions that often dominate whether on land or in the sea. Yep, most critters gotta munch if they are to survive. You should all know that munching is critical to the continuation of the individual just as mating is critical to the continuation of the species.
While it is pretty cool to capture an unusual species on video, I am even more satisfied when I capture an incredible interaction on film (er, memory card these days). These may include a wide range of interactive behaviors. However, chowing down on another species seems to capture my attention most spectacularly.Mating does as well since I'm the king of fish porn.
Some species are not very exciting when they are feeding. I'm thinking of tube worms, barnacles and other filter feeders. I just don't feel the same blood lust with them since I can't see the fear and looks of horror on the faces of microscopic plankton as they get swept into the digestive tract. Watching a bat ray such up a Chaetopterus worm or a shark gobble up a fish is far more satisfying!
The ecological nexus that links the members of an ecosystem is full of such interactions. However, it isn't that often my reflexes were good enough to capture them. Usually the poor prey has disappeared into the predator's gullet by the time I press the record button on my camera. This is especially true during daytime when the light presents a myriad of different critters around me.
Diving at night, one often experiences a sort of tunnel vision. Dive and video lights just can't illuminate objects at any real distance so you are focused on what the beams do intercept. For that reason, many of my best feeding sequences were taken during the darkness. In our waters, morays (Gymnothorax mordax) and large kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus) comes out at night to chow down while many of their potential prey such as blacksmith (Chromis punctipinnis) are hiding in nooks and crannies, as fearful of the dark as a young child believing there is a monster under their bed.
I've had the perverted pleasure of filming many a moray or kelp bass and even octopuses capturing and munching on blacksmith as well as other goodies. The kelp bass, with their better vision, are probably more successful than the morays. I see the latter miss their target quite frequently... some such sequences can be highly amusing... although the moray doesn't seem to laugh!
Several years ago I was out on a night dive at Casino Point. I located a moray extending out of a hole and waited to see if it would lunge out to capture a nearby blacksmith. Instead, a large kelp bass entered the video frame and tried to bite the moray's head off! I guess that bass needed a pair of glasses. I have seen similar attempts a few times since this. Of course the bass never swallows the moray and both end up looking a little confused after the encounter!
I would kind of equate these brief battles to the cinematic competitions of Godzilla with King Kong and a host of other opponents. The Japanese sure seem to like to make these movies. Of course these battles may last 90 minutes or more. The two vicious predators in the battle I observed quit early and went on to search for defenseless blacksmith.
© 2020 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 850 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Large kelp bass chomping down on head of the moray.
