What type of eel is this? Pic from Datura dive 4/23

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Kaliber35

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Location
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25 - 49
Cam across this little guy yesterday. Cant remember if I saw him on the first or second reef. He was about 2 feet long and seemed very calm. Anyway, Ive never seen one before. Picture is from video.

3d87d

850f0
 
I've seen Sharptail Eels in Bonaire. Those I've seen tended to be crawling around on the bottom and displayed very snake-like movement; move of a highly limber crawling than I'm used to seeing with the spotted moray eels I've watched.

In fact, on a trip with a group in March, a couple of divers from our group came back telling me they'd seen a sea snake. Considering we were in Bonaire I figured it was one of these, and when we got into describing it, I'm pretty sure that's what they saw.

Neat animals.

Richard.
 
I see them quite a bit on the shallow reefs on the East coast of Florida and at Blue Heron Bridge. It's always exciting to see a new animal when you are diving. Thanks for sharing.
 
Nice photos: These critters are very common at blue heron bridge. I recall the first time I saw one...... my buddy and I had never seen anything like it and were convinced that it was some sort of wayward venomous sea snake and backed off in complete fear. We ran over the Force-E's WPB shop after the dive, described the 'sea snake' and our safety concerns and had the staff rolling on the ground in laugher.
 
The Gold Spotted Eel is very similar to the Sharptailed Eel. They are both species of snake eels. The Gold Spotted Eel has gold (yellow) spots along its entire body. The Sharptailed Eel has gold spots on its head only, the spots on its body are white. This looks like a Sharptailed Eel to me.
 
Definitely a Sharptail Eel. More than the yellowish, white spots the Goldspotted's spots look a lot more striking because each spot is surrounded by brown circles. In other words Sharptail is brown with pale spots, Goldspot is pale with brown spots and each brown spot has a gold dot in the center. I've seen the sharptail at Datura 2nd reef and at BHB also. The goldspotted I've only come across once at blue heron bridge.
 
It is a Tristan da Cunha venomous sea snake. They spit their venom in the water and 300 PPM (parts per million) is a deadly dose. Depending on the current flow you are lucky to be alive. These guys are strong swimmers and have been known to swim up current from divers then spit thier clear venom into the water which then drifts down current and absorbs into your skin. Deadly critters. The only hope you have if you see one is to out swim it up current.
 
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