I've been diving with Ed Robinson's crew for years and I've never seen anyone harass wildlife, in fact just the opposite.
Never too late to go Green
- Thread starter beanniebrew
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Black_3000psi
Guest
ok here comes my two cents worth. wow your opinion is noted? Krisb and i dont agree on much but i agree with him on this one. if you were sleeping minding your own business i guess you would enjoy someone yanking on your leg so that you might entertain them. while i have been known to pet the eels (once they get over the inital shock of the first touch the actually enjoy it) but grabing an animals tail for the sole purpose of self indulgence is as selfish as it gets. if the divemaster is grabing sharks by the fin as stated above why dont you enlighten me on its educational value? other than showing people what not to do? am i missing a point here that says grabing a shark by the fin in an effort to make it come out is showing the animal respect? anyone doing things of this nature is as you put it "not a part of the ocean"
Black_3000psi
Guest
after reading that tale that had to be scary a couple things stand out in my mind. as a divemaster myself these issues bring questions that at this point (years later) are not as important today but these questions should have been raised when the incident happened.
1."if" this eel was "naturally" this agressive common sense dictates that I do not take anyone near that coral head especially while tooting its favorate food, as well as leading a group of divers that are not acustom to dealing with such agressiveness from a creature that can do some serious damage. so why would you want to "alert" this guy(the eel?) now I have not seen everything there is to see but in over 300 dives I have never seen an eel come out of its hole like that and logic tells me that the only reason it would do so is because it has been conditioned to equate the presence of divers with feeding time. the problem was this eel had become to agressive and the feeding of this eel had to be stopped but the eel dont see it that way hes thinking ok time to eat he can smell the food the he heard the dinner bell (divers swimming above his hole) so he comes out expecting to get fed. but nobody is feeding him. at this point hes getting more agressive looking for that which he smells now he sees those delicate little fingers mistakes them for what hes looking for and takes a bite. this is a classic example of why the signs read "dont feed the bears" but hind sight is 20/20 it was bad idea but with good intentions to allow such interaction with sea life would make for an awsome dive.
now here is where it gets "unacceptable". she gets back onto the boat the crew member can tell right away she got hit his words are "he got you didnt he" thats not a question my friends. its an admission that it had happened before and not just once. "dont tell anyone"
she is instructed by the crew not to tell anyone. gee I wonder why? acctually I dont have to wander at all. legal liablity and questionable dive practice issues is not something a dive op wants to deal with. and like I said thats not the first person that eel has bitten in fact the eel followed her all the way back to the boat and though it didnt bite her again it really did expect to get fed.
to answer your question about the how the shark got into it let me direct your attention to paragraph 5
"On other occassions I have witnessed crew/dive guides grabbing the tails of white tips at Molokini while they were sleeping so they would come out. There were other things I have heard how this company has negatively impacted the reef , but did not witness myself so I won't mention."
for those of you who dont know whitetips are nocturnal feeders (meaning they feed at night) so when you see one under a ledge its sleeping are trying to get some sleep.
the bottom line is we all need to rethink how we enteract down there myself included. yes I can say that i have caught octopus to show divers. being "beeked" by an octopus is not a pleasent experience and i have a cute little scar on my hand to remind me.so we all make mistakes.if we learn from them its and no one else gets hurt then its a good thing, life experiences are a good thing.
1."if" this eel was "naturally" this agressive common sense dictates that I do not take anyone near that coral head especially while tooting its favorate food, as well as leading a group of divers that are not acustom to dealing with such agressiveness from a creature that can do some serious damage. so why would you want to "alert" this guy(the eel?) now I have not seen everything there is to see but in over 300 dives I have never seen an eel come out of its hole like that and logic tells me that the only reason it would do so is because it has been conditioned to equate the presence of divers with feeding time. the problem was this eel had become to agressive and the feeding of this eel had to be stopped but the eel dont see it that way hes thinking ok time to eat he can smell the food the he heard the dinner bell (divers swimming above his hole) so he comes out expecting to get fed. but nobody is feeding him. at this point hes getting more agressive looking for that which he smells now he sees those delicate little fingers mistakes them for what hes looking for and takes a bite. this is a classic example of why the signs read "dont feed the bears" but hind sight is 20/20 it was bad idea but with good intentions to allow such interaction with sea life would make for an awsome dive.
now here is where it gets "unacceptable". she gets back onto the boat the crew member can tell right away she got hit his words are "he got you didnt he" thats not a question my friends. its an admission that it had happened before and not just once. "dont tell anyone"
she is instructed by the crew not to tell anyone. gee I wonder why? acctually I dont have to wander at all. legal liablity and questionable dive practice issues is not something a dive op wants to deal with. and like I said thats not the first person that eel has bitten in fact the eel followed her all the way back to the boat and though it didnt bite her again it really did expect to get fed.
to answer your question about the how the shark got into it let me direct your attention to paragraph 5
"On other occassions I have witnessed crew/dive guides grabbing the tails of white tips at Molokini while they were sleeping so they would come out. There were other things I have heard how this company has negatively impacted the reef , but did not witness myself so I won't mention."
for those of you who dont know whitetips are nocturnal feeders (meaning they feed at night) so when you see one under a ledge its sleeping are trying to get some sleep.
the bottom line is we all need to rethink how we enteract down there myself included. yes I can say that i have caught octopus to show divers. being "beeked" by an octopus is not a pleasent experience and i have a cute little scar on my hand to remind me.so we all make mistakes.if we learn from them its and no one else gets hurt then its a good thing, life experiences are a good thing.
DiveMaven
Contributor
The OP also stated that what happened was "many years ago and I am sure we have all been educated in the past 20 years".
I'm not sure how many years ago she is referring to, and I don't think anyone would argue that what her experiences were could be considered acceptable by anyone. However, Ed has been in business for a long time and if this incident was a considerable number of years ago, it simply isn't fair IMO to judge his current crew and operation based on this long ago experience.
I've been diving with them for the past 4 years and the only touching I've seen DMs do are with slipper lobsters and octopus. Though I choose a hands-off approach myself, I understand that catching octopus and picking up slipper lobsters to show divers is very common in Hawaii.
I'm not sure how many years ago she is referring to, and I don't think anyone would argue that what her experiences were could be considered acceptable by anyone. However, Ed has been in business for a long time and if this incident was a considerable number of years ago, it simply isn't fair IMO to judge his current crew and operation based on this long ago experience.
I've been diving with them for the past 4 years and the only touching I've seen DMs do are with slipper lobsters and octopus. Though I choose a hands-off approach myself, I understand that catching octopus and picking up slipper lobsters to show divers is very common in Hawaii.
Black_3000psi
Guest
if you will take notice to the first paragraph I did acknowledge that it was some years ago. all references to the crew were directed to the crew at that time. i dont think that I worded anything that might shed a bad light on crew working for the company as it is today.if i did please point it out to me and i will correct it. but do not try to insult my intelligence by saying the eel was never fed. because the evidence says otherwise. and the insructions during the dive briefing tell a different story. they were (the divers ) instructed to snorkel over the coral head to alert the eel:
quote
We were briefed that the very agressive moray eel who lives in one coral head would be around. What we were instructed to do was snorkel over the eel's coral head,to alert him, then descend after we passed over to the.....
I too made a mistake in the dont feed the bears area. fortunely i was the only one at risk and yes it did creat a problem. although it did not get me bit it did cause afew other problems. you might want to get relaxed this is a very long story.
I used to clean boat bottoms at kewalo basin and afew other harbors. but i spent alot of time at kewalo basin as i had a contract with extreme parasail.i knew of the very large sting rays that made the harbor home. there was a very large ray a huge spoted and a smaller ray that had had its stinger removed brutally at the base. many times id be working on a boat and could feel their presence,but they always seemed to stay just out of my line of vision. i was in that harbor almost every day. once while working on the "screamer" I had ripped a hole in a net sack i used to hold the bolts i removed from the grating,though we replaced the bolts it ticked me off that i had lost 2 of them and one day when i had the chance i went looking for the bolts.now i had always figured that sooner or later the rays would come to accept my presence in their waters and start getting closer. I had no idea just how right i was. my face was little more than a foot from the bottom as i was trying not to disturb the silty bottom.as i was slowly moving about the bottom view started changing. i was barely moving at the time but suddenly the bottom was moving it changed color slightly to a different greyish color and it was happening very slowly. it was then that i realized all at once that it was happening the ray was very slowly pulling up on me. I was blown away at its wing span it was huge. and it was looking me dead in the eyes as it came to a stop right below me just a foot of space between us at first i was stoked but the eyes of this creature were just too much for me they looked so intelligent i started backing off but as i rose and started for the ladder so did the ray swimming in a tight slow circle. i wanted to stay it was like it was calling me to play but it was all way to intense for me. i got out of the water. after afew minutes on the dock i looked down at the camrea id been keeping with me waiting for this exact moment. i had failed to take a single pic. i was ashamed of my self.two days later i was back under the screamer checking the new gratings that had new support bars added to them they were fine. and so i started looking around to see if the ray was around. not seeing it i decided to see if i could get its attention and so i tapped on the grating with my dive knife three times nice and slow and waited. looking left looking right nothing then as i turned back to my left i was just in time to see that not only had the ray answered the call it had come directly to me then turned off at the last second. its stinger coming so close to me in slow motion i can tell you its stinger tapers just like a diamond with four edges that come down to a perfect point. it headed back down toward russells boat the magic where it usually got a nice carcass from the boats daily catch. afew days later i came up with a cool idea. i got some bait fish some huge sardines and jumped in went to the bottom and began to wait. there i was sitting on the bottom tossing this sardine slowly up in the water hoping the ray would come. even did my three taps with my knife. but nothing happen.at the time i was facing russells boat cause thats the place they always seem to come from when i spot them from the surface.suddenly i felt a strong woosh on my bald head. i looked up and there he was cruising right over head he had missed the sardine but didnt seem to be in much of a hurry.then it was gone as i turned to my left i suddenly realized that the smaller one with no tail was right in front of me id always figured the smaller one was female and she was trying to figure a way to get that sardine and i was trying to stuff it in her mouth omg had to be a funny sight. emotionally it was crazy i was happy beyond belief and scared to death at the same time. she finally got the sardine. and came back for another pass looking for more but i only had one!!!she was all over me looking for more but in a very gentle way. unlike the eel. but soon it got too intense and once again i bailed. from that moment on to this very day when ever im doing work on a boat on the front dock they aways buzz me a few times but lucky for me that they never get mad cause i dont have any thing to feed them and they are very playful and curious. but some times when i just want to do the work and get out its a pain in the rear to deal with yet a situation i created so i deal with it. and i have to admit i feel some what special that they always come by to say hi.yet in the back of my mind there is that fear because i know it could all change in the blink of an eye.
true story.
quote
We were briefed that the very agressive moray eel who lives in one coral head would be around. What we were instructed to do was snorkel over the eel's coral head,to alert him, then descend after we passed over to the.....
I too made a mistake in the dont feed the bears area. fortunely i was the only one at risk and yes it did creat a problem. although it did not get me bit it did cause afew other problems. you might want to get relaxed this is a very long story.
I used to clean boat bottoms at kewalo basin and afew other harbors. but i spent alot of time at kewalo basin as i had a contract with extreme parasail.i knew of the very large sting rays that made the harbor home. there was a very large ray a huge spoted and a smaller ray that had had its stinger removed brutally at the base. many times id be working on a boat and could feel their presence,but they always seemed to stay just out of my line of vision. i was in that harbor almost every day. once while working on the "screamer" I had ripped a hole in a net sack i used to hold the bolts i removed from the grating,though we replaced the bolts it ticked me off that i had lost 2 of them and one day when i had the chance i went looking for the bolts.now i had always figured that sooner or later the rays would come to accept my presence in their waters and start getting closer. I had no idea just how right i was. my face was little more than a foot from the bottom as i was trying not to disturb the silty bottom.as i was slowly moving about the bottom view started changing. i was barely moving at the time but suddenly the bottom was moving it changed color slightly to a different greyish color and it was happening very slowly. it was then that i realized all at once that it was happening the ray was very slowly pulling up on me. I was blown away at its wing span it was huge. and it was looking me dead in the eyes as it came to a stop right below me just a foot of space between us at first i was stoked but the eyes of this creature were just too much for me they looked so intelligent i started backing off but as i rose and started for the ladder so did the ray swimming in a tight slow circle. i wanted to stay it was like it was calling me to play but it was all way to intense for me. i got out of the water. after afew minutes on the dock i looked down at the camrea id been keeping with me waiting for this exact moment. i had failed to take a single pic. i was ashamed of my self.two days later i was back under the screamer checking the new gratings that had new support bars added to them they were fine. and so i started looking around to see if the ray was around. not seeing it i decided to see if i could get its attention and so i tapped on the grating with my dive knife three times nice and slow and waited. looking left looking right nothing then as i turned back to my left i was just in time to see that not only had the ray answered the call it had come directly to me then turned off at the last second. its stinger coming so close to me in slow motion i can tell you its stinger tapers just like a diamond with four edges that come down to a perfect point. it headed back down toward russells boat the magic where it usually got a nice carcass from the boats daily catch. afew days later i came up with a cool idea. i got some bait fish some huge sardines and jumped in went to the bottom and began to wait. there i was sitting on the bottom tossing this sardine slowly up in the water hoping the ray would come. even did my three taps with my knife. but nothing happen.at the time i was facing russells boat cause thats the place they always seem to come from when i spot them from the surface.suddenly i felt a strong woosh on my bald head. i looked up and there he was cruising right over head he had missed the sardine but didnt seem to be in much of a hurry.then it was gone as i turned to my left i suddenly realized that the smaller one with no tail was right in front of me id always figured the smaller one was female and she was trying to figure a way to get that sardine and i was trying to stuff it in her mouth omg had to be a funny sight. emotionally it was crazy i was happy beyond belief and scared to death at the same time. she finally got the sardine. and came back for another pass looking for more but i only had one!!!she was all over me looking for more but in a very gentle way. unlike the eel. but soon it got too intense and once again i bailed. from that moment on to this very day when ever im doing work on a boat on the front dock they aways buzz me a few times but lucky for me that they never get mad cause i dont have any thing to feed them and they are very playful and curious. but some times when i just want to do the work and get out its a pain in the rear to deal with yet a situation i created so i deal with it. and i have to admit i feel some what special that they always come by to say hi.yet in the back of my mind there is that fear because i know it could all change in the blink of an eye.
true story.
Similar threads
