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Scuba Forum / General / September 2007Fort Lauderdale Moray Eel Dive Video
I finally got around to starting to edit my Fort Lauderdale dive video from late June. Here is the first one, a three minute video. We were doing a reef drift dive when my buddy saw this big green moray eel in the crevice. When we got on the boat, she said it looked to be 8 to 10 feet, but it looked more like 6 to 8 feet to me. www.marshallkarp.com or http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5809274173065619657 By the way, just to head off the question that I have been getting: Why didn't you get closer? Because I didn't want to. The whole time I was hovering over him, I was thinking, don't come up here, just don't come up here. >I finally got around to starting to edit my Fort Lauderdale dive video from >late June. Here is the first one, a three minute video. We were doing a >reef drift dive when my buddy saw this big green moray eel in the crevice. >When we got on the boat, she said it looked to be 8 to 10 feet, but it >looked more like 6 to 8 feet to me. > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5809274173065619657 You need to get some lights for that camera. > By the way, just to head off the question that I have been getting: Why > didn't you get closer? Because I didn't want to. There's no better reason. > The whole time I was hovering over him, I was thinking, don't come up > here, just don't come up here. Be glad you didn't see the one on the Spirit of Washington, in the Keys. He's used to being hand fed and often comes out to visit with divers, as in nuzzling them. Talk about increased heartbeat. Lee > >I finally got around to starting to edit my Fort Lauderdale dive video from > >late June. Here is the first one, a three minute video. We were doing a [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Lee I got up close and personal with the City of Washington eel several years ago. I was using a Sealife Reefmaster camera at the time, with the attachable macro lens things that come with those cameras dangling below the yellow housing. I spotted the eel under a deck plate, and he was not shy at all. He came out and swam toward me. I started firing pictures as fast as I could, and he was looking right into the lens. I was able to back off at about the same speed he was swimming, which never felt threatening to me, but I wanted to keep my distance. I do think he was interested in the little dangly lenses hanging below the camera. He eventually lost interest and went a different direction. At the time, I was pretty excited about the photos, but I wouldn't even show them now. I've gotten much better moray pictures since then, mostly by getting closer and closer. I saw another eel on one of the wrecks off Pompano Beach in April that was similarly conditioned by having been fed. I got some nice photos of him: http://picasaweb.google.com/george.cathcart/PompanoDiveWeekend2007/photo#5067195 869378533314 http://picasaweb.google.com/george.cathcart/PompanoDiveWeekend2007/photo#5067195 895148337106 http://picasaweb.google.com/george.cathcart/PompanoDiveWeekend2007/photo#5067195 920918140898 After I took those, with a w/a lens, so I was pretty darn close, I backed off so others could shoot him. I have a shot of him swimming through the other divers as they lean back, except for one older guy who was just laughing as the eel rubbed up against his housing. And then there's Oscar, the eel at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I love feeding him, even though he usually doesn't even take food. Two weeks ago when I was feeding him, he stuck his nose in the feed bag for a long time, just sniffing, not eating anything, then came out, looked at me and swam off slowly, very deliberately rubbing his body against my hands as he went. We're not allowed to reach out and touch him, but apparently nobody told him he couldn't reach out. gc > You need to get some lights for that camera. And white balance and focus would help too. Not as shaky as the last attempts, though, so the anti-Parkinsons medication must be kicking in. I'll try to post some eel footage from my last trip in the next couple days. I got plenty of free swimmers and on my last dive managed to catch two eels "fencing". Hopefully I can track down which tape that was as there are about 25 to weed through. > > By the way, just to head off the question that I have been getting: Why > > didn't you get closer? Because I didn't want to. > > There's no better reason. Usually I'd scoff at that, but I've now been around two vicious eel injuries in the space of four months: Janna's attack in April, and a diver on our panga in the Galapagos last month. The latter was truly vicious as the poor lady didn't even see the eel that got her - she was busy photographing a nearby fish, apparently pissed off the eel, and chomped down on her hand. She had to shake it off as it wouldn't let go. They doctored her up pretty good on the boat and she continued to make the next day of diving (it was fortunately toward the end of the trip), but she e-mailed to report that after she returned home, the docs started her on some real serious antibiotics and told her she'd probably have some permanent nerve damage. Eels are no joke. > Be glad you didn't see the one on the Spirit of Washington, in the Keys. > He's used to being hand fed and often comes out to visit with divers, as in > nuzzling them. Talk about increased heartbeat. There's a big fellow on the wreck in Roatan that came out to play. I put my hand out in a C-shape and he swam right through. Nothing more velvety than the feel of a big green moray. > There's a big fellow on the wreck in Roatan that came out to play. I > put my hand out in a C-shape and he swam right through. Nothing more > velvety than the feel of a big green moray. Oh, the belly of a cownose stingray is right up there... On Sep 10, 12:19 pm, George Cathcart <george.cathc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > There's a big fellow on the wreck in Roatan that came out to play. I > > put my hand out in a C-shape and he swam right through. Nothing more > > velvety than the feel of a big green moray. > > Oh, the belly of a cownose stingray is right up there... I've manhandled plenty of southerns and even a tame eagle ray, but never a cownose. I'll put that on my to-do list. (BTW, for those who were wondering, though I'll never tell how I know, whale sharks are just as rough skinned as any other shark - for some weird reason I thought they would feel smooth) > On Sep 10, 12:19 pm, George Cathcart <george.cathc...@gmail.com> > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > whale sharks are just as rough skinned as any other shark - for some > weird reason I thought they would feel smooth) You are soooo bad. No wonder you get bit all the time. > > On Sep 10, 12:19 pm, George Cathcart <george.cathc...@gmail.com> > > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > You are soooo bad. No wonder you get bit all the time. No eels bites yet, and I've stopped needlessly provoking sharks, but I did get nipped by a pesky Mexican hogfish. At Wolf and Darwin, most of the time you're holding onto barnacle-covered rocks enjoying the show. As the current is very strong, often those barnacles break off, exposing the delicacies within. So there's always a few annoying fish hovering around your hands waiting to see what you'll feed them next. Apparently the hogfish thought finger food was on the menu. Greg Mossman <mossman@qnet.com> pounded away at his keyboard resulting in: :No eels bites yet, and I've stopped needlessly provoking sharks, but I :did get nipped by a pesky Mexican hogfish. At Wolf and Darwin, most [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] :hovering around your hands waiting to see what you'll feed them next. :Apparently the hogfish thought finger food was on the menu. When I was there, once I grabbed the rock on a place where there was a hole, and the occupant of said hole gave me a nip. After that I started checking first. Dan Bracuk Never use a big word when a diminutive one will do. Actually Greg, that "shaky video" feedback you gave from my last video really stuck with me. I consciously made an effort to hold steady. Obviously, the original AVI file and DVD video looks much better. This flash video compression is really pixelizing the video. However, flash is what they show, so it is what it is. >> You need to get some lights for that camera. > [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > put my hand out in a C-shape and he swam right through. Nothing more > velvety than the feel of a big green moray. > Actually Greg, that "shaky video" feedback you gave from my last video > really stuck with me. I consciously made an effort to hold steady. Definitely much better. I was able to watch the entire video this time. The others, I closed after a few seconds lest they give me motion sickness. Now you just need to fine tune. > Obviously, the original AVI file and DVD video looks much better. This > flash video compression is really pixelizing the video. However, flash is > what they show, so it is what it is. I really couldn't make out the eel at all. It's too dark in the crevice, so you'd need lights to illuminate it. You'll likely be OK getting closer to your subject since it will bite the camera first if it goes for anything, as long as you haven't been handling fish (they mainly go for smell). The focus part referred to some early portions, where you had a near- distance bare rocky reef in focus and all the fish in the background out of focus, so I don't think it's entirely the fault of the flash compression. I'm not able to manually focus in my housing, so I tend to leave it focused between about 2 feet to infinity, then override that with autofocus if I need to get in close to something. There was another part where the white balance changed from OK to bad midscene. Whatever it was that you did that changed it to bad, don't do. Otherwise, you're coming along. Now you need to go somewhere with blue water and better subject matter, maybe a shark dive in the Bahamas? (snip)> Usually I'd scoff at that, but I've now been around two vicious eel > injuries in the space of four months: Janna's attack in April, and a > diver on our panga in the Galapagos last month. The latter was truly [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > and told her she'd probably have some permanent nerve damage. Eels > are no joke. A friend of mine in Belize, had an eel chase him back to the boat and bite him on his upper arm. He very nearly lost his arm and has a couple of deep and nasty scars. No one in the area had ever heard the like of it before. Now I'm hearing too much of it. But then again, maybe Greg, Janna and the people he dives with are using up the quota. > > Be glad you didn't see the one on the Spirit of Washington, in the Keys. > > He's used to being hand fed and often comes out to visit with divers, as in [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > put my hand out in a C-shape and he swam right through. Nothing more > velvety than the feel of a big green moray. Have to admit . . . there is nothing like it. >> Janna's attack in April . . . She was teasing it. It's a shame she got bit, but she earned it. >> and a diver on our panga in the Galapagos last month. The latter was >> truly >> vicious as the poor lady didn't even see the eel that got her - she >> was busy photographing a nearby fish, apparently pissed off the eel, >> and chomped down on her hand. She had to shake it off as it wouldn't >> let go. My bullshit meter just went off the scale. There's more to it than that. Morays don't attack for no reason. She may not have been responsible, but someone was. She may have handled fish and smelled like food to the almost blind moray (stupid). Someone else may have pissed it off and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You don't just "shake off" a moray. There are plenty of instances to show that morays grab and hold. In some cases, they had to be killed and then pried off. >> Eels are no joke. All wild animals, and many domestic animals with teeth are not a joke. Lee > My bullshit meter just went off the scale. There's more to it than that. > Morays [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > at > the wrong time. I doubt she was handling fish before the dive unless she ate lunch with her hands. She was wearing gloves and both her gloved hands were on her camera when the eel struck. At that point we were the only boat out at Wolf Island and it's a large area with the divers somewhat spread out, so it's not likely that anyone pissed off that very same eel. With all the other things to see there, most divers simply ignored the eels. > You don't just "shake off" a moray. There are plenty of > instances > to show that morays grab and hold. In some cases, they had to be killed and > then > pried off. She said she shook it off. I have no reason to doubt her. Probably a cross between the bad taste of glove/human blood and the disconcerting feeling of being shaken around convinced the eel to eventually let go. > (snip)> Usually I'd scoff at that, but I've now been around two vicious eel > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > But then again, maybe Greg, Janna and the people he dives with are using up > the quota. I'm blaming global warming. It's heating their poor little eel brains to the point they turn psycho. |
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