Moray Eel Attack

[Doc Harry]

Hard to say what I'd do in a similar situation. I can sit here in my warm living room and and say that I'd do the right thing, but then again I'm not bleeding all over my floor.

If I were bleeding badly, there were sharks in the area and I couldn't find a buddy then maybe I would make an uncontrolled (painc) ascent.

But I do know that I'd be pulling out my KNIFE and giving that bugger a fight!

 

[trigfunctions]

JR Scuba and Mambo Dave - Just curious, why would you rather not say where the eels were? Are you concerned someone would try to feed it or something?

 

[caymaniac]

Don't know how I would react
if one wrapped itself around me. But there definitely would be a wetsuit change.

My wife and I were diving at Stingray City. After feeding the stingrays I headed north to see if I could locate a large moray in the coral heads nearby. I saw one big green moray deep in a crevice. I watched him for a couple of minutes and thought about adjusting the focus gear on my housing to see if I could get a picture of him and I thought I'd disconnect my strobe from it's housing arm. As I was looking at my camera and starting to fiddle with the focus gear I felt a strange sensation around my waist. The eel had swum out of the crevice and was squeezing itself between my wet suit and BC. As he entered on my left and excited on my right I felt his smooth skin with my hand, it was an incredible soft velvety feel. It was quite a exhilerating experience, there was a gal diving off my left, the look on her face was tell tale, her eyes were as big as saucers.

 

[hopeitsapar]

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.

Think of the gator attacks in FL, often they have been human fed. This is why it is illegal to feed the gators.

 

[paixx01]

i always think divers with knifes is just a gungho thing, i mean sure you could get tangled on something, but unless wreck diving it must be very very unlikely, our last dive the guy with us, killed a 'crown of thorns' but no one thinks to kill the cushion star, which also eats coral. this is all i think i'll ever see a knife used for, imho most eels just run away unless looking for lobsters in hawaii

 

[mkt]

wow...

I saw a few green morays in Black Wall and Ledges in Puerto Rico last week. They were just staring at us the whole time, and would scurry back to their holes whenever a diver came within 10 feet or so. I don't think these eels were fed or used to humans.

 

[guinness_ep]

Great thread. I love Morays. They are fantastic to see. I have only had one swim out at a dive buddy as we hung out in front of his hole just watching him. Maybe 3ft and went past us into another hole.

The biggest one I have seen I think was called Goliath and from memory was on the Benwood wreck in the keys. Maybe wrong on dive site. I would estimate at least 8ft long. Would not want that hanging off me but wonderful to see.

 

[LavaSurfer]

i always think divers with knifes is just a gungho thing, i mean sure you could get tangled on something, but unless wreck diving it must be very very unlikely, our last dive the guy with us, killed a 'crown of thorns' but no one thinks to kill the cushion star, which also eats coral. this is all i think i'll ever see a knife used for, imho most eels just run away unless looking for lobsters in hawaii

[FONT=&quot]I always have my knife, It’s like an Octo, you never know when you might need it. I consider it as important as any other gear.

As far as killing a crown of thorns or any other animal because its doing what it does, That’s just the STUPIDEST thing I have ever heard of! Its plain wrong unless I am killing for food and that’s a different situation.

When in Hawaii I occasionally take a sling if I am in an area I can fish and the unlucky fresh grouper might hit my grill. Yum!

Eels are awesome creatures. No doubt about it. There is one I frequently dive with in Cayman, Most Cayman divers know him as Psycho, He has a bad eye and a sweet disposition although he had bitten a few ignorant people that just finished feeding stingrays squid.

HELLO McFly! Don't play with Eels after playing with DEAD SQUID! Eels Eat Squid! Duh!

Psycho gets a bad rap for biting a few stupid people every year and there is talk about putting him under but so far the dive boats have battled to keep him alive. He is not the vilan, people need to realize that waving fingers that look like quid and smell like squid in front of a green Morey with cateracts is a recipe for disaster.

Also on the Wreck of the Doc Polson in Grand Cayman there is the biggest Eel I have ever seen. Taking into account that things look larger underwater, he still has an 18" diameter head. Scarred, Battered and grey from years at odds with the environment this big sucker has hung in there to be the king. If you ever get a chance to dive the Polson he hides under the stern and 15 feet under the boat.

[/FONT]

 

[gangrel441]

As far as killing a crown of thorns or any other animal because its doing what it does, That’s just the STUPIDEST thing I have ever heard of! Its plain wrong unless I am killing for food and that’s a different situation.

While I generally agree with this sentiment, I would have to make an exception for invasive exotic species that threaten the environment. In many parts of the world, Crown of Thorns falls into this catagory. Left unchecked by natural predators or corals that have developed defenses against them, COT can destroy reefs quite quickly.

That said, my understanding is that attacking a COT with a knife will only turn one COT into 5 or 6 of his closest relatives. The proper way to get rid of these guys is not to go Freddy Kreuger on them, but rather to (carefully) collect them and bring them to the surface to dry out, or inject them with something to kill them.

 

[DocVikingo]

You are correct, gangrel441.

Regards,

DocVikingo