Main Menu
Join Undercurrent on Facebook

The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 | |
For Divers since 1975
The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975
"Best of the Web: scuba tips no other
source dares to publish" -- Forbes
X
May 2014    Download the Entire Issue (PDF) Available to the Public Vol. 40, No. 5   RSS Feed for Undercurrent Issues
What's this?

To Eels, Your Fins May Look Tasty Enough to Bite

from the May, 2014 issue of Undercurrent   Subscribe Now

Dear Ben,

I read with interest your story last month about the feeding of lionfish to sharks and eels, and the effect this seems to be having on those animals' behavior. So here's another episode for you.

My wife and I were diving on the south shore of Roatán in August 2012. I suspect that the staff at dive shops and resorts there have been culling lionfish for some time. I know our divemaster had been doing so -- I witnessed him simply leaving the speared fish to drift in open water for whoever got there first. On my dives, it was mostly groupers and large jacks that got the goods. I did not witness any sharks or eels feeding on the discarded fish, however, I did see an unusual number of free-swimming eels out during the day. On one dive, my buddy and I were finning parallel to the wall at 30 feet, behind two women who were finning in the same direction. As we watched, a large eel bolted from the wall, at a high rate of speed, swam directly toward the two women and very deliberately bit one of their fins, then turned around and retreated back to the wall. For the remainder of that dive, that eel (or possibly another) followed us all while keeping close to the wall. It's very clear this animal is associating divers with food -- not a good thing!

-- John Siminger, Shelburne, VT

I want to get all the stories! Tell me how I can become an Undercurrent Online Member and get online access to all the articles of Undercurrent as well as thousands of first hand reports on dive operations world-wide


Find in  

| Home | Online Members Area | My Account | Login | Join |
| Travel Index | Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews | Featured Reports | Recent Issues | Back Issues |
| Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | Seasonal Planner | Blogs | Free Articles | Book Picks | News |
| Special Offers | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |

Copyright © 1996-2024 Undercurrent (www.undercurrent.org)
3020 Bridgeway, Ste 102, Sausalito, Ca 94965
All rights reserved.

cd