safe distance

[GDI]

:doctor: Yes nice pic jeadiver

 

[simbrooks]

Is that a gape??

 

[ygthad]

Morays can do quite a bit of damage if they feel threatened, but you have to get close enough to get the shot based on the limitations of your equipment. In all of my pictures (a couple of hundred) I have only had two times when I was threatend:
Once when I irritated a an ocean trigger fish and another when the strobes irritated a good sized sand tiger shark. The trigger fish attacked, and tried to nibble me to death with hundreds of painful chunks out of my skin (thank God for a 5mil suit!). I am very wary of trigger fish now. The Sandtiger did a "gape" which (according to the experts) is kind of like a warning bark that the animal is getting tired of you. I left the area where the shark was right afterwards. The pciture below shows the Shark, so you might get a feel for why I left.

Yes I would leave too..

 

[cudachaser]

I got my finger bit once when I tapped a spotted Morey on the nose to get him to come further out of his hole

Joe

 

[R_Deluca]

Very nice pic Jeadiver, you have my vote for Pic of the month!

 

[DFC5343]

It sucks. Ab diving when it was legal in SoCal and invaded ones home with my hand. Leather glove saved my finger. They are very strong and rarely let go. In Ca. we have the brown variety and they get huge. I stay away but sometimes encounters occur.

 

[jiveturkey]

Check out the link in the first post here. You can get pretty close but each animal is different so nothing is 100%. You've got to make a judgment as the moment happens.

 

[Pierre Siquet]

How would yo like it if a stranger carressed your cheek?

Well, simple, the moray was free to snap me, and far big enough to get more than my finger off. In this way, it was a fair play, not a tiny fish in a corner. And if the moray was afraid, would surely have reacted, but it sees divers all around the year. So, not really stranger.

Correct in a way that we should not touch anything. Especially when it damages. But now a lot says we should leave marine life in peace. Yep, but even without man, their life is far from peace (just look at how many eggs a fish has to spawn to ensure the life continuity = two survivers to breed). So, sometimes, divers interraction consequences is a bit exagerated.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Sometimes the marine critter will come to you ... last night we had a visit from a fairly good-sized and extremely playful harbor seal. It literally swam right into my dive buddy's face and peered into her mask. She startled it when she screamed ... understandably ... having a face larger than yours come out of the dark at high speed and stop about four inches from your mask can be a bit disconcerting. Not to mention this was her first encounter with a marine critter that size. The seal stayed with us for about 20 minutes ... literally following us back to the cove. No need to approach this one ... had I wanted to I could've petted him a few times as he swam in front of me.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)