Tortuga Roja
Guest
I had an interesting dive yesterday. I was actually attacked by an undulated moray! Really. I should preface by saying I have seen many of these and other eels in my time and have many pix of them. Undulated eels, as my experience goes, have always been the most aggressive of the eels in these waters and I have had them "come at me" before but never like this.
The story: I was crossing a sandy area and happened across an undulated moray eel out the open with his nose under a small piece of dead coral. He pulled out and was chewing on what I think was the remnants of a crab. I settled into the sand on my stomach and got about 3 pix off before he knew I was there.
When he saw me, rather than take off in the other direction as I would have expected, he came right at me. I have seen these guys do this before and usually I will hold my camera out so the DS125 is the closest thing to them. As expected, he touched the strobe with his nose and, realizing it was too hard to bite, he turned and swam away.
I followed, shooting a few pix along the way to a patch of reef where I knew he would find his favorite hole to slither into, maybe sticking his head out for a last pose. As we reached the reef, my eyes were fixed on him so I didn't notice that his buddy/mate/whatever, had come out of the reef to fight with me until he nearly had sunk his teeth into my bare ankle.
I whipped around and stuck my hard bodied strobe into his face to try to convince him I was too hard to eat. He actually took a bite and kept coming at me. He wasn't supposed to do this! I ascended, probably a little faster than I should have, to about 15 feet above the floor, and he kept coming up the column. He wasn't supposed to do that either. I wanted to tell him that I meant he and his friends no harm but he wouldn't have it. I was leaving his area as fast as my fins could pedal while fending with my strobe but he was still chasing me. It wasn't until we were about a hundred feet from his patch of reef, that he finally turned to go back.
About 40 minutes later, on my way back to shore, I came by the same patch of reef and decided to see if my "friend" was still around. I saw one undulated acting normal with his head out of a hole but wasn't sure which one he was.
Then I saw a cool yellow leaf scorpionfish. I took a few pics but just didn't feel comfortable enough to not keep looking around for that eel. So I decided to go on in.
On shore, where my wife had been sun bathing, she told me about a couple of scuba divers that came out of the water there because a "big headed eel" was chasing them.
The story: I was crossing a sandy area and happened across an undulated moray eel out the open with his nose under a small piece of dead coral. He pulled out and was chewing on what I think was the remnants of a crab. I settled into the sand on my stomach and got about 3 pix off before he knew I was there.
When he saw me, rather than take off in the other direction as I would have expected, he came right at me. I have seen these guys do this before and usually I will hold my camera out so the DS125 is the closest thing to them. As expected, he touched the strobe with his nose and, realizing it was too hard to bite, he turned and swam away.
I followed, shooting a few pix along the way to a patch of reef where I knew he would find his favorite hole to slither into, maybe sticking his head out for a last pose. As we reached the reef, my eyes were fixed on him so I didn't notice that his buddy/mate/whatever, had come out of the reef to fight with me until he nearly had sunk his teeth into my bare ankle.
I whipped around and stuck my hard bodied strobe into his face to try to convince him I was too hard to eat. He actually took a bite and kept coming at me. He wasn't supposed to do this! I ascended, probably a little faster than I should have, to about 15 feet above the floor, and he kept coming up the column. He wasn't supposed to do that either. I wanted to tell him that I meant he and his friends no harm but he wouldn't have it. I was leaving his area as fast as my fins could pedal while fending with my strobe but he was still chasing me. It wasn't until we were about a hundred feet from his patch of reef, that he finally turned to go back.
About 40 minutes later, on my way back to shore, I came by the same patch of reef and decided to see if my "friend" was still around. I saw one undulated acting normal with his head out of a hole but wasn't sure which one he was.
Then I saw a cool yellow leaf scorpionfish. I took a few pics but just didn't feel comfortable enough to not keep looking around for that eel. So I decided to go on in.
On shore, where my wife had been sun bathing, she told me about a couple of scuba divers that came out of the water there because a "big headed eel" was chasing them.
! The price of a picture!
