Turtle Bite

[Mark IV]

Interesting croc stories, gopbroek ! back in the early 90's, my brother and i were living in Cancun, racking up logged dives, working towards our Divemaster certs, and for one long stretch, the ocean side was churning with waves, so we were trading back and forth the one set of borrowed gear we had at the time, logging 20 min dives in the lagoon off the little pier across from Sol Y Mar. We knew the crocs existed, but didn't give it much thought. In retrospect, pretty stupid !
My first marina job was at the Cancun Marina Club hotel (which was on the lagoon side), and the dock guys somehow snatched up a 3 foot crocodile right off our pier.
Gypsies restaurant (also on the lagoon) used to feed the crocs chickens for the entertainment of their dinner guests. I'd heard some monsters came in regularly for that!
For years, a 100+ ft yacht used to home base out of Puerto Abrigo, (I eventually worked for the captain and his wife, for years, later moving the boat to Isla Mujeres, then finally Roatan).
There used to be a big croc there at Abrigo that used to hang out under the swim platform off the stern of the boat !! You could see him lurking there through the slats in the deck!

 

[Sloeber]

Here's your Aerolito croc -

 

[deepsea21]

I try to give the Croc's a wide berth. They are not a theme park attraction.

If they are ON LAND all you have to do is come up on them from behind (from their 4:00 - 8:00 o'clock as they can really only snap around to about their 3:00 and 9:00. Pick up their tail and drag backwards (they need to use their tail to snap around so if you are holding it they can't snap around much at all) and in one jump put all of your weight on the Croc or Alligator's body while at the same time coming down with your hands on top of its snout (jaws should be closed - don't try this if its jaws are open). All of their jaw strength is in closing their jaws, they have minimal muscle to strength to open them and you can easily hold their mouth shut. This video shows how easy it is after he was done playing with it. I'll show you next time we're down if we come across one. That being said, I personally wouldn't try this with those over about 6' or 7' in length as I'm not a "professional" gator wrangler and, quite frankly, the release is more dangerous than the initial catch without a snare around its mouth.