Once back on the boat, I asked him what the hell he thought he was doing, and his response was "Didn't you see the arrow crab? I was pointing right at it. I could not understand why the hell my husband would deliberatly put an appendage in danger. I slapped his hand away and only to have him do it again. I looked in horror when I noticed he was pointing to an eel, with his finger less than 2 inches from it's open mouth. He got really excited and was pointing to something on some rubble. The site we were on was loaded with bridge rubble, so lots of nooks and crannies. One of my favorite eel stories was when my and husband and I were on our certification dives. I always give them plenty of room as well as keep my fingers safely tucked away. I love seeing eels when diving and could watch them the entire dive. Respect the reef as it may just reach out and grab you at any point! Needless to say he was not an instructor at the end of that dive. Back at the boat the Instructor then gave a quick lesson on what not to do when you see Lobster in a hole and pointed at dumb a$$. The real instructor sent him to the boat and finished the dive. He latched on to the finger which had a glove and the DM quickly pulled his finger out (bad idea) and the eel ripped his finger from the second knuckle from the tip all the way to the tip with 2 perfect slices on each side of the finger. I was tagging along with the group and was free to go where I wanted, I saw a lobster and was pointing it out to the class, I saw a small hole with an opening on the other side, so I got the lobster walking in the direction of the other opening and along comes Mr know it all Dive Master who was going to be the macho guy and sticks his hand right inthe hole to grab the lobster (as this usually works so well right) and low and behold the green moray was hanging with the lobster and had other ideas. When my wife was getting certified, the Dive Master was going for his instructor rating, so he was supposed to be the instructor for the class. What other eel attacks have you seen, what contributed to them and what should you avoid doing as a result?" Eels can surprise you and bite with what may seem minimal provocation at times which is well worth remembering! Once a eel decides to attack you there doesn't seem to be a lot that you can effectively do about it.Ĩ. Snares and tickle sticks add distance but given some of the lengths eels may swim to nail a diver, perhaps not enough distance in all cases.ħ. Not sure this is always the case however. Some say a lobster may keep an antennae bent backward if it is sharing a hole with an eel. Anyone going after lobster should keep this in mind and checkout holes before going in there. Eels commonly occur in holes with lobster. Eels can decide to turn around and swim a good distance to attack a diver following what may seem to be a minor annoyance.Ħ. They can show some pretty aggressive territorial response.ĥ. Eel is excited and swimming erratically and perhaps coming in close for whatever reasonģ. Food in the water, speared, from shark feeding or even feeding reef fish, particularly the eel itself.Ģ. "So, common factors, (there are likely others too), seem to include:ġ. It seems likely just not all of us have escaped problems however.Įel Rips Lobster Divers Hand & Other Attacks - FKA Kiteboarding Forums This isn't rocket science, the conclusions could be reached through simple common sense and yet lots of us have violated some of these logical precautions hundreds of times over the years without problems. Some of the videos have been collected at the link below, along with some conclusions which have been reproduced below. One thing that stuck me was just how aggressive eels can be in the face of what may seem a minor irritation and how far they may swim in visiting retribution on an offending diver. I started looking at some of the videos and started to reconsider some conclusions about eel behavior derived from over 40 years of interacting with them. Compared to the number of diving hours per year, still not that much but perhaps a bit more common than you might think. I started looking around online and found quite a few reports, photos and some videos dealing with attacks. You would think eel bites would be fairly common but over the years, I haven't heard of that many. Eels are common and can often be found in the same hole as lobster. I sure hope the guy recovers fully and fast with minimal surgery and rehabilitation. A diver got hit while going after lobster off Palm Beach County. A photo of a messed up divers hand showed up online yesterday.
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