I was snorkelling with my mum in May at Sorobon (Lac Bay) and we were stalked and attacked by a one metre+ Moray Eel! It came out right in front of me and then later came up behind my mum when she was diving down. I had to move grab her to the side because there was almost a collision course! We made the mistake of hanging around and taking pictures when it found a hiding place. The strange thing was that we left and then a minute later the Moray Eel appeared again stalking us. Then it went for a full attack - we swam backwards to keep it in view - my mum had flippers which helped keep it at bay, then when she tried to lead it away it followed her for a bit but then decided to come back for me (I wasn't wearing flippers!) There was an intense minute chase with its mouth a few inches from my toes! Eventually it stopped and we got away. We're never scared of much (we've done tons of dives with sharks, at night, etc) but this was pretty crazy! I asked a friend and he said it happened to him in the same area but he was hand line fishing so had fish in his pocket. I looked into it and it seems there have been attacks because divers feed them aswell (in other countries). Is this the likely reason? Or was it just territorial?

Anyway watch out in that area!

Clark..Oh my..Amazing..How did you ever survive?
I do think they should post warning signs in the area to alert the folks...

"Be aware vicious moray eel in the vicinity".

Just leave your windows down and nothing of value in the car...

(For those of you who don't think that's funny, go find a crime thread to read. To the OP, great story. Scary, but cool in a scary way, and a memory that will be shared for generations. Glad all were ok.)

e.

We had something weird happen with a Moray
at Tori's Reef. A large one circled around
my Wife's feet and continued to pursue her
for a few moments. I'm absolutely convinced
it was because of what she was wearing. She
had on a swimsuit that was brown with green
stripes - almost the exact shade of green
and about the same thickness as a moray.
How could that not catch an eel's attention?

...trying to find the crime thread.....be back later for more words of wisdom.



DB

Ha ha Sounds like a good sign Vince. They should warn about the box/portugese man of war jellies and eels I think. Not sure if that was a sarcastic 'how did you survive' but if you get bitten by one you're pretty screwed because the teeth are backwards and don't let go. I read an account on the Cayman islands and the guide had his arm muscles totally torn...ouch.

Clark, it's a pretty big area (and one of my favorite snorkels when the surf is low)--if you're standing on the shore at the windsurfing places, looking out at the reef, can you say about where this happened? All the way towards the left/near the boat channel....all the way towards the right where the reef curves into the shore...??

Well Clark I'm glad you took it OK. Yes, admittedly there was sarcasm in my posting. No malice was intended though.

Folks should realize that the ocean is not a big swimming pool. There are all sorts of creatures in it and some can hurt you, send you to the hospital or even worse. There is risk in everything we do, from snorkeling, to scuba diving to just getting out of bed in the morning or even (believe it or not) riding a bicycle near where the jet planes are taking off by Windsock.

Yes I also read that account which you referenced and the bite from a moray is EXTREMELY serious as you correctly point out. I believe the dive master was putting his hand where he shouldn't in an attempt to "show off" in front of the other divers. Frankly, he should have known better. From what I've read about them,they are extremely myopic. Not wise to put your hand near them. If some folks do it and get away with it, that's fine they were lucky. Sooner or later the luck runs out.

At any rate, life indeed carries risks. Someone is not always responsible for bad things that happen to people. If you feel others are in fact responsible for your well being, rest assured you do have plenty of company.

If the eel didn't actually nip at you, consider that morays have olfactory receptors along the sides of their mouths and face(somebody with more expertise could probably draw you a diagram: I just know they're there.). It's possible the creature was trying to smell you, or something on you. A hundred million years ago, before anybody knew better, when we used to feed morays to attract them for clients, they(the morays, not the clients!) exhibited this behavior, looking for which of us had the hot dog...

From your description it was towards the far right. I've seen lots of eels on Bonaire and never been bothered so this was an anomaly.

Cheers Vince - I'm aware of the risks of life I was mainly taken by surprise because I'd never seen an eel act so strange. And you may think an Eel isn't particularly intimidating but I'd like to see you fend one off with nothing but your feet!!! A friend of my mums was swimming two weeks before I saw the eel and was caught by a Portugese man of war and almost died (in Bonaire). And a year before that I was swimming with the banded Box Jelly on Bonaire without knowing what it was. So I reckon there should be better information for tourists even though there risks its nice to know about them.

Clark..here's a friendly tip for whenever you snorkel..Most folks constantly keep their heads down facing the reef bottom while finning on the surface. Get into the habit of every 15 secs or so, always look horizontal in the direction that you're swimming to identify the Bonaire banded box jelly (BBJ) or of course a Portuguese man o war least you inadvertently swim into one. Many times they come in during a wind reversal. In other words, ALWAYS know what's in front of you when you snorkel, instead of focusing all your attention on what's below you.

As far as fending off a moray,rest assured I do know that they are EXTREMELY strong animals.. I learned the strength of eels when I was 10 years old fishing for them. I could always tell when an eel was on the line by the intense fight they put up (and they were far smaller than the morays on Bonaire).

I've shared this before. I was in Cozumel in 96 and one of the divemasters was attacked by a three foot spotted moray. It swam right up from the reef another dive group went through (mooing). The eel went right for his mask and grabbed onto his neck. The DM squeezed on the critter till it let go. The DM was back to work the next day for work with seven stitches for his troubles. Blood is green under water. I never take pictures of eels!!

If you see one of these, swim away fast. Bonaire Banded Box Jelly. Feb 2, 2010
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AatGTZi2cNGLMXg

@ Johanna
Nice pic
Apparently you did not follow your own advice :-)

Are they common??

Sue..As far as I'm concerned the answer is "NO". I've never seen one and I do look out for them. However, they obviously exist so you should be cognizant of it.

Johanna's excellent photos of the Tamoya box jelly (BBBJ) were added to the archive and research we are doing on this new species. To date, 43 sightings have been documented since 2001. I take this opportunity to request any new sightings be documented and please email me with the vitals...depth, location, date, size, potency (if stung), etc. If captured please turn into Ramon at STINAPA for preservation. We are continuing the genetic sequencing and descriptive work as ongoing research with the Smithsonian Institute. It has also been sighted off Utila, Cozumel, St. Vincent, St. Lucia.

FYI. We are hosting the 6th Annual Jellyfish Jamboree starting June 15 to July 15. Please report any jelly (any species) sightings to me at:
bud13@earthlink.net

Thanks.

Hi Bud, what exactly is the Annual Jellyfish Jamboree?

MBZ
An annual survey of any/all jellies seen off Bonaire. I've done a sting study along with for ten years. Did you want to volunteer?
I have a collection permit from STINAPA and DROB (Dutch Govt) for box jellies we are studying.

Flip flops rule,
Bud

Thanks for the advice Vince.

Bud - My mother Marijke already contacted you a while back with pictures and a video we took. I'm glad you're still researching - my friend Johan said he found and sent you a specimen a while ago too!

Cheers

Hey Bud, I was just curious. my daughter got lots of little stings last time we were there (a year and a half ago) all over her belly. They hurt for a few minutes but then were more itchy than anything else. She hates jellyfish now unless they are in a tank in the aquarium!
I will be there during your jamboree and will report if I see any but I have to say I am hoping I don't!

MBZ and other jelly friends.
And Hi Clark.

There are lots of sting things but right up there are sea lice and siphonophores. Sea lice, are the larvae of stinging jellies and leave nasty welts. The bell siphonophores are intense but only a short while. Let me know when you get to Bonaire.

Clark, are you on Bonaire? Your vid and pics of the BBBJ off Divi are awesome. We used them in our research and scientific clade work. Yes, Johan's is part of Smithsonian's permanment collection. See you soon.

Bud

Is there a link to the "awesome" vid and pics of BBBJ off Divi??

"Are they common??"

We've seen them on 2 of our trips, both in April.

We noticed this floating and stayed away. We are not sure what it is but knew we did not have to touch it.

How big is that thing? Hard to get any perspective from the background.

e.

Is it a salp? I think everything is a salp. I see salps in my soup.

There are lots of different kinds, but there's a cold water one that looks like this.

It's a salp. Or jello. Or a plastic bag...

looks like a Comb Jellie (Ctenophores), possibly the Sea Walnut.
Most comb Jellies grow to 2-3" in size. One exception being the Venus Girdle which can grow as long as 4'.
This (family) are the critters that produce alot of the bioluminescese we see night diving. Very fragile critters, touching usually causes them to break, you can block, but don't poke. Always best just to observe their beauty!

This "thing" was about 8 or 9 inches in diameter. It was not a plastic bag.

The plastic bag thing was a joke, Ron. So was the jello. It would be bright red or green if it was jello...

Johanna - Here are some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tesserazoa/3528492020/in/photostream/

Or one of me here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwilhelmus/3535813170/in/set-72157594346738635/


Bud - I'm not on Bonaire right now unfortunately.
Keep up the good work! Exciting stuff. Its real fun following the developments.



(Message edited by heijbroek on June 17, 2010)

Not a problem Babara, I thought it was a plastic bag myself until I got closer. Some creature created it for a reason unkown to me.

Good, Ron. Im just a goofball, but never at anybody's expense.

I hoped someone would ask me why no orange jello, so I could go off about it being a cold water species. but....no takers....

Did your plastic bag creature have what looked like a pinkish walnut inside it? I'm still trying to make it a salp....

I looked up salp on Google. The critter could have bailed out and left it's bag floating around. I first spotted it out away from the reef and the sunlight made it appear bright. I must have watched too many shows with aliens because I did take a very long look at this thing. It does appear to be the bag a salp would call home, but the light was on and no one was home. So with that said we here by claim this to be a salp bag.

(Message edited by Countrygrit on June 17, 2010)

We'll call it Salpbagus Ronnus. Oh wait....bagus is "good" in Indonesian, I think.

Did you see "The Abyss"? The miniature space ship was modeled after a salp, so maybe you were on to something...

In fact, moray eels don't attack. they want only fish, and there's no way they can be persuaded to eat red meat. I know, because I've tried to feed hot dogs to them, only to have them turn their head away. But they do search us for food if they've been fed by snorkelers or divers. If you find a moray slithering all over you, he's just looking for fish. I was diving with one of my sons who didn't know this, and when this big green thing came up to him, it was the first time in 2000 years that anyone had walked on the water!

Actually Clark is right about the aggressive behaviour of the large green moray behind Sorobon Reef. I wrote about it last summer too. He wasn't looking for fish, although they are known to do that like trained seals.
The green in Lac is defending his 2 female mates. Which we saw after following him. He rushed us even after leaving.
It did not attack us but rushed us and brushed us.
If he wanted to do damage he would have.

My husband and I had the same experience with a large green moray at Sorobon reef a couple of years ago. We didn't see him before he rushed at us. As we back-peddled away from him he rushed us a 2nd time. It seemed like he was trying to move us away from his space. It worked!