Moray Eel Attack

[Ironhed]

I have dove the sea emporer in pompano before actually it was on my check out dive. we were told of the moray eel but did not see him that day. the largest moray eel I ever saw was when I was spearfishing I forgot my light and did not know till I was on the bottom the vis was maybe 7 ft with no light and I was told of huge grouper down ther in the ledge. as I worked my way down the ledge I came across this huge head poking out with no light I couldnt tell what it was really as I took aim with my 60" gun I saw it open it's mouth it was an eel it's head was as large as a basketball I did not see his length but I am guessing at least 10' or more it was a monster for sure and when he saw the business end of my gun he was not happy. this was the same day I shot the fish in my avatar. that was one wild day we shot 3 50# grouper and a 25# grouper along with some nice mangos

 

[trigfunctions]

Last weekend my wife and I had an incredible encounter with an 8ft Green Moray on a wreck off Pompano Beach, FL. Those of you that dive Ft Lauderdale - Pompano know the wreck as The Sea Emporer. It's an upside down barge with a large pile of concrete pipes on one side. About 60 foot deep or so.
Mike Rushton

Howdy - Great story. I dove on that wreck on April 23rd. It is a great dive. We didn't see the eel, but we saw a pretty large stingray crusing up and down the barge. I posted a video of it in my gallery, "Ft. Lauderdale Stingray". There was also a huge Goliath Grouper under the barge but I didn't get any good pictures.

 

[DeputyDan]

Dennis:

I have read research that says that Mantas recognize and differentiate humans by our eyes.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I believe that to be true, DeputyDan. I have another Manta story about cutting off 8 wraps of 100lb. test long line, illegal, off a Manta that knew somehow that I was the only diver that had a knife and she was very visual as well, swimming along side me on more than one occasion that day before I was able to help her. I wonder if whales are the same? Catherine on this board had a whale encounter where the whale was almost eye to eye with her for 20 minutes. That is very interesting research. I'll have to look into that. Thanks.

 

[RAD Diver]

We were in Utila last week & saw Green Morays on almost every dive, taking pics of most.
On some shore dives by the resort there was one that was very big, at least compared to all the others we had seen. It never came out , but it appeared to be at least 6 inches around. We took many pics & never did it seem aggressive. I will try to post a gallery once Ive gone through all my pics & removed the bad ones.

 

[NarcosisDave]

Well I think sitting in front of the PC saying "I would do this or That" doesn't really count to be honest, I mean its easy to decide what you would do when you are nice and warm and a cup of cofee next to you - I can garuantee that 90% of divers the world over would panic if they had a dirty great big Moray doing it's best to eat your arm in front of you. Personally I have no idea what I would do because I have never been in that position. I have been bumped by a great white in False Bay South Africa and I got out the water pretty damn fast I can tell you !!

 

[Kwbyron]

I would bite it back, that'd teach him.

 

[Chaseh]

The following medical case report discusses an attack by a moray eel on a diver at 30m (100 feet) - the basics of the story are this: Dive group was briefed that they would possibly see a moray eel on their dive. It is unclear if the dive group or previous dive groups fed the eel, but the eel apparently associated divers with food. The eel came out, circled the divers, and then clamped down on the diver's right arm. He could not get the attention of other divers, so he inflated his BC and made an uncontrolled ascent. The eel apparently let go somewhere around 50 feet, diver was taken to the hospital and had surgery. No mention of effects of uncontrolled ascent from 100 feet.

You can read the full story here: (possibly NSFW pictures of arm during surgery)
http://www.wemjournal.org/wmsonline...&issn=1080-6032&volume=015&issue=03&page=0194

My questions and comments:
1) and uncontrolled ascent from 100 ft?? that has to be more life-threatening than an eel bite
2) Aside from not supporting an unhealthy population of marine life, this is probably the best argument for not feeding creatures while scuba diving.
3) what would you have done in the same situation?

Since you stated it's not known if the eel had been fed or not, why assume that feeding the eel led to the incident?

What an unhealthy population of marine life mean? Artifically feeding one portion of the eco-system? I'm just not sure what you meant by that.

 

[radinator]

I did a manta dive in Hawaii and was sitting on the bottom near one of the plankton-attracting lights so the manta would come close. (It did).

While I was watching it, I felt something slither across my lap. When I looked down I saw a 6' morey who decided that sitting near the light was a good way to get a fish. So after he crossed me, he sat near me on the sand. I watched the manta, and he watched the fish near the light.

I never did see him get his meal.

 

[Kwbyron]

Hand feeding wild animals promotes a dependence on us for food, opposed to fending for them selfs. They will associate humans more and more with food and become increasingly more aggressive to get it from us. Not only are they less capable of surviving on their own, the food we give them is often not part of their normal diet, and can cause them to get sick. It's easy to misinterpret behavior and incite a defense mechanism. It's just like in the National Parks with bears, or Lakeway, Tx. with White tail deer. I can't tell you how many times I've walked out the front door to startle a buck at night, would take much for him to decide to gore and kick me instead of running.