moray eels

[CA Diver]

August 7 I saw 5 different Moray eels off Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. I have also seen two free swimming moray eels, both on Night Dives. One was a Spotted moray in The Florida Keys in May 04. The other was a Snowflake moray on Haps Reef in Guam in January 03. While watching the Snowflake it darted up and grapped a fish for dinner. Cool sight.

 

[sessions]

August 7 I saw 5 different Moray eels off Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. I have also seen two free swimming moray eels, both on Night Dives. One was a Spotted moray in The Florida Keys in May 04. The other was a Snowflake moray on Haps Reef in Guam in January 03. While watching the Snowflake it darted up and grapped a fish for dinner. Cool sight.

Last season, at the west end of Catalina, i had just grabbed a nice "bug"....as I got it 2 ft from the rock, a 3-4 footer, came out, grabbed my prize and disapeared back...he won.

 

[Dive-4-life]

hey i was just wonding when u guys say u have a eel in a tank, did u catch it, or buy it, if u bought it where. Also wut kind of stuff do u feed it

 

[cdiver2]

Conger shocker - Simon Rogerson

August 2004







A diver has described a violent struggle with a conger eel on a 30m wreck dive in the North Sea. George Telfer was exploring the wreck of a trawler eight miles off St Andrews when the 2.5m-long eel bit his hand.

‘The first I knew about it was when I felt a sharp pain in my hand,’ Telfer told reporters. ‘I knew straight away I had been bitten. I then turned and faced the eel... Instinctively, I tried to pull my hand away but the eel withdrew into the bowels of the ship, taking me with it.’

The conger was so powerful, it managed to drag Telfer, 42, several metres inside the wreck. He reacted by grabbing its body with his free hand and squeezing as hard as he could until it let go.

Telfer, a diving officer with the Scottish Sub-Aqua Club, suffered bite marks and a bruised face after being slammed against the metal walls of the trawler. His theory was that the eel acted aggressively because it was trying to defend its young.

‘I used to play with conger eels when I was diving on the west coast [of Scotland], and used to cuddle them,’ he said. ‘This one was less than friendly. I suppose I am lucky to be alive, because eels that size can easily pin a diver to the sea bed.’

 

[Allison Finch]

I guess the conger saw those photos of yours. No wonder he tried to bite the #$@* out of a human! The wanton killing of those magnificent eels "just for fun", Is a sad testimony. I'm all for killing what you want to eat. I have spearfished for many years before I decided to "hunt" with a camera, instead. Killing for pleasure still evades my ability to reason.

 

[cdiver2]

Hi Allison I agree with you 100%. I used to hunt in my younger days (land) and used to eat what I hunted but I also used to think it was macho (young & dumb). After six years in the army I realized there was nothing macho about it and in fact hunting was so easy I got no satisfaction at all. Then I took up long range target shooting. Like you I now shoot living things with a camera.
I don't know about Morays but the Conger has a lymph heart in the tail and if you press there it will let go.

 

[apclayton]

You will not entice a Moray out of its den without food---YOU DO NOT WANT TO ENTICE A MORAY OUT WITH FOOD! They don't see very well and if they come out to take bait from you, they will not be able to tell the difference between your hand the the food in your hand. 4 yrs. ago, a day tripper from Belize City came over to the Belize Aggressor with a badly bitten dive leader to use the radio to summon help. It was a nasty wound right in the tricep of his left arm. Over a period of months, he was training this moray to take food from him for the entertainment of his diving guest. On that day, he tucked the plastic baggy with the bait in it under his left arm while he turned to signal his nine guest to form a semi-circle in front of the den. Much to the horror of the rest of the on-looking divers, the moray came out and lunged at the baggy---he got it and a nice chunk of the dive leader's arm. Get this---blood filled the water; the dive leader and his assistant surfaced, got aboard the boat and sped to the Aggressor leaving all nine guest divers in the water. Probably most of these divers were your tourist diver. Can you imagine what they thought being left alone in the bloody water and their transportation speeding away?:wacko: One of our guest familiar with boats took dive operator's boat back to the quest to pick them up. He said that all he saw when he got there were nine pairs of saucer size eyes staring, several were in a near panic. He calmed them down and got them aboard. Fortunately, we had a doc on board who was able to give first aid. The dive leader was taken to a nearby island where a helicopter picked him up. I have seen a few free swimming morays during the day, but they are primarily night hunters. Be satisified looking at the moray displaying his head, teeth, and pulsing jaws; take photos or video, but don't fool around with them. If they feel threatened, they will defend themselves. If you see one swimming freely during the day, consider yourself lucky.

Barracuda2

Enticing a Moray out of its den, with or without food, is not a good idea. My fiancee was bitten by a Moray that swam at least 100 feet from its den into the midst of a group of 3 divers. The Moray bypassed the DM, who was holding a container of bait fish, and swam agressively around my fiancee - under her armpits, over her shoulder, around her neck and down her back. The Moray then bit her twice on the calf, opening very deep wounds. The incident occurred at approximately 110ft and could have been far worse considering the depth, profuse bleeding and limited dive experience of my fiancee. Luckily she was bitten on the calf and not the neck or some other vital area. A few days after the attack, the same Moray attacked and bit the camera of another diver. Moray's are powerful predators that can be aggressive and unpredictable. I believe this particular Moray was conditioned to associate divers with food by years of feeding.

 

[saildiver]

August 7 I saw 5 different Moray eels off Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. I have also seen two free swimming moray eels, both on Night Dives. One was a Spotted moray in The Florida Keys in May 04. The other was a Snowflake moray on Haps Reef in Guam in January 03. While watching the Snowflake it darted up and grapped a fish for dinner. Cool sight.

No one has mentioned Enchellynassa Canina-an extremely large black moray with 1 in.+ canine teeth found,as far as I know still,only in Hawaii- who regularly grows to 7+ ft and has a nasty reputation.This eel has chased me out of holes twice while spearfishing-in fact he kept coming after me even after I was about 15 ft off the bottom till he violently ripped the fish off my spear.Two other incidents were when I was with my old friend Punchy-known by most of the big Island of Hawaii's greatest spearfisherman.He used to tell me stories of all the times this big black eel had bitten him-with and without provocation around the cmpfire on dive trips in the early 70s when I was first started in marine biology.Both of his hands were scarred and deformed-he said from boken bones from bites by this eel.Once,when we were diving together,I saw Punchy swimming towards me as fast as he could-with a 7 ft black eel swimming at his fin tips.As punchy approached me he shot upwards and the eel spotted me and swam about twenty ft across the bottom and then began chasing me across the bottom for about another 50ft,until I too swam upwards, though he did follow me for about 15 ft which started making me a little nervous, I have to admit.The last story about this black eel is the worst though.Punchy was diving one day and I was in the boat following his bubbles, when suddenly his head surfaced ,yelling in pain,without his mask,and his face covered in blood and bleeding profusely.I immediatetly picked him up only to discover that had once again been attacked by "Enchellynassa"as Punchy "affectionately" called the eel.Punchy reported that as he was in a hole bagging a lobster-the eel hit him in the face plate,knocking off his mask and regulator and bit him in the face.After I examined him on the surface,the eel's upper teeth had lacerated and crushed through his cheekbone, nose, and nasal septum.The lower teeth tore through the roof of his mouth and lip.I've never seen an eel anywhere that is this aggressive on a regular basis.I think that moray eels,though most will give you no trouble,like any other predator with that much muscle, and teeth that sharp,need to be treated with great respect-and personally I don't pet or feed them,and I'll forever keep one eye open for Enchellynassa!And congers......Russ England-saildivers

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

Enticing a Moray out of its den, with or without food, is not a good idea. My fiancee was bitten by a Moray that swam at least 100 feet from its den into the midst of a group of 3 divers. The Moray bypassed the DM, who was holding a container of bait fish, and swam agressively around my fiancee - under her armpits, over her shoulder, around her neck and down her back. The Moray then bit her twice on the calf, opening very deep wounds. The incident occurred at approximately 110ft and could have been far worse considering the depth, profuse bleeding and limited dive experience of my fiancee. Luckily she was bitten on the calf and not the neck or some other vital area. A few days after the attack, the same Moray attacked and bit the camera of another diver. Moray's are powerful predators that can be aggressive and unpredictable. I believe this particular Moray was conditioned to associate divers with food by years of feeding.

Those are amazing photos of the attack! I'm glad it wasn't more serious.

Thanks for sharing.

Marc

 

[rricks90254]

I took this photo on today's dive. It is a Yellowmargin Moray about 4 feet in length. I did not feed it or entice it in any way. It was just there.

Olympus C2040Z in a PT-010, auto focus, A/S/M Mode (A setting at F5.6), internal flash at Plus 2.0, Macro off

Wife and I just back from Fiji where we saw these two Eels. The first one (eel.jpg) I spotted in the open and watched it for about 10 seconds before it went into it's hole. It was only then that I could get pics of it.