Helping marine critters

[divedeepnj]

Any good stories about divers helping out marine critters? Thought it would be a good thread. A couple of years ago I see a large eel on a wreck. I swim closer, he doesn't move. I swim to within a couple of feet, he's swimming, not going anywhere. Then I realize, he's hooked, and the monofilament is wrapped around the ribs of the wreck, he's food. I break out the trusty old knife, cut the mono, and away he goes. Does that make up for the lobster I brought up????

 

[k ellis]

Good deal. Im glad to hear he survived his ordeal!

 

[Sas]

I found a pufferfish still alive on a pier one day - I think caught by a fisher and not thrown back. I put it back in the water, I hope it was ok as I heard often if they try to puff up on the surface and then deflate, the air gets trapped as they are designed to suck in water to inflate. Poor little thing, it was looking quite distressed.

 

[vixtor]

There is a place near a pier where a lot of people do fish usually. I have dived a few times there, and usually I find small frog fish (hope this is the right english name for Gobius Niger/Gobius Cephalarges) hooked on monofilament tangled through the rocks. I try to get their hooks out if possible, or at least cut the monofilament.

A funny thing happened once there - i dived the place with a friend (i think it was his 5th or 6th dive). I saved about 3 or 4 frog fishes, and signaling him with an OK each time after freeing the fish. I also collected the lead weights, just for fun. We have finished the dive and surfaced. It was a beautiful sunset, the sea was motionless, and returning from the cold 9 degrees depth, I was just enjoying the pleasure of swiming back to shore. This friend of mine suddendly asks me "what was your problem with the fisher's lines that you cut them? What if someone saw our bubbles and will wait us on shore?" I bursted in a huge laugh, which made everything perfect He thought I was cutting the monofilament from the fishing rods, not just tangled monofilament (I have to admit that I would not have touched an unbroken monofilament, being scared that the fisher might roll it back and I would get a few hooks deep in my hand).

 

[katdiver]

We were returning to the shore after a dive and a greenback swam up to us and stopped. She was very badly entangled in mono and the line was cutting deep into one her front fins and around her neck. She allowed us to beach her where we got to work on the mono. She was so weak and the mono was so deep, I hope she survived, we did our best and let her swim off.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/socal/215148-one-killer-removed-water-another-escapes.html

 

[Guba]

About the only situation I remember was in a freshwater lake. My partner discovered a catfish hooked and entangled on a branch on the bottom. The little fellow had been there a while, for it looked emaciated and in poor condition. However, after we unhooked it, the catfish swam away on its own power, so we suppose the "operation" was a success.

 

[HakoFugu]

Another fish, another fishing line.... This one was a little Rivulated Toby (little puffer called a Kita Makura, or North Pillow, in Japanese) swimming for all he was worth and not going anywhere. He was hooked on a line wrapped several times around a large rock. I got out my EMT shears and started pulling him toward me, which just drove him bonkers. During his acrobatics, the hook dislodged and he took off like a batfish outta hell. Coulda sworn he gave me an OK signal as he swam away though.

Snipped off the hook, buried it deep.

 

[Barracuda2]

Diving an estuary on the out going tide on Andros Island, Bahamas when I came on a hooked sea bass. When he took the bait, he must have dove under some debris and entangled the line which broke from the fisherman's rod leaving the fish stranded like a kite in the wind. I cut the line and now I felt like I was flying a kite as the bass circled above me. My plans were to draw the fish to me and see if I could get the hook out of his mouth. Suddenly, a huge barracuda showed up, obviously excited, eyeing the circling sea bass. He kept getting closer to the bass, and me, darting about trying to decide how bad he wanted the fish, and I felt like he was about to take the bass. I had looped the line around my hand once and was afraid the barracuda would strike the bass and make a run for it probably cutting my hand with the line. I promptly let go of the line, and immediately the cuda hit the bass and shot out of sight with it, hook and line. I tried to help the bass, but ended up feeding a cuda; however, the cuda may have eaten the hook which would not be good.