Diving experience

The thread about weird and wonderful creatures in nature reminded me of an experience I had one time in SE Asia while diving.

This story is probably not as cool as the 'weird and wonderful' thread, but I'll tell it anyway just for kicks. These fish are definitely weird, and wonderful I guess.

A buddy of mine and myself had gone in on a week long charter of a live-aboard dive boat in the S. China Sea off the coast of Malaysia. We saw all kinds of cool stuff on this trip. We'd gone in on this trip with 4-5 other people some of whom we didn't know. Anyway, this one time we'd been skin diving and SCUBA diving all morning and we came up for lunch. So we were all sitting there on the boat eating lunch. The charter owner was this Malaysian guy and his brother, and they served all kinds of weird food (some of it not very good). So, we're sitting there and the lunch was some bizarre thing which fell into the 'not very good' category (like bordering on spoiled). But they did have some hard boiled eggs, so me, my buddy and another Malay friend of ours were eating these eggs. We'd shell the eggs and throw the shells overboard. At one point my Malay buddy dropped his camera in the water while trying to adjust something on it. The camera belonged to his brother, and he said his brother would kill him if anything happened to it. So he dropped it overboard and it sank to the bottom about 70-80 feet below. Most everyone was at their ND limits, but I had some time left, so I volunteered to go get it.

The water was about 70-80 feet, but there was a reef right next to where we were anchored, and the top of the reef was only about 2-1/2 feet below the surface. So I strapped on a tank, my gear and got ready to go looking for the camera. My two other buddies were sitting there still eating these eggs and tossing the shells overboard. I jumped in the water, gave the okay signal and dropped below the surface. Right then, from out of the shadows under the boat, came this absolutely mammoth Giant Sea Wrasse (i.e. a really BIG fish that feeds on coral. I think they're relatives of the Parrot Fish. Their official name is "Humphead Wrasse" I believe). Scared the living daylights out of me! And he was headed right for my chest! Wrasses aren't particularly harmful, but they are HUGE, and if they bite you they can take off a finger (or even a hand), but they're not aggressive. Well, I didn't know it, but these things just absolutely love, love, LOVE egg shells!! They eat coral for the calcium and egg shells have a lot of calcium. So this guy was just hanging out under the boat gorging himself on all the egg shells we were throwing overboard. Now he was onto me, I guess thinking I had more egg shells. He made a B-line right for me! Below me was 70+ feet of water, but right behind me was a jagged coral reef covered by only a couple feet of water, and he had me backed up against this coral.

My first reaction was to back away from him, but I instantly got into the coral (bad idea!). With the wave action over the reef, getting into that coral was a recipe for disaster because that stuff will cut you to ribbons in an instant. So I had nowhere to go. Now, when I say BIG fish, I mean HUGE! This guy's mouth was easily larger than my head, and he probably weighed about 300 lbs or so. So I kind of dodged him and popped my head up above the surface to plead for a little help only to find my buddies rolling around laughing at what was happening! Great! No help! Worse, now they were throwing even more egg shells in the water left and right and enjoying the antics of me shucking and jiving to try and escape from this huge fish. If I went down, the fish would go down. If I moved to one side, the fish would move that way. No matter where I went, this huge fish was all over me. All he wanted was some egg shells, but I didn't want him 'tasting' me to see if I was egg shell flavored! This went on for what seemed like a half hour (probably only about 5 minutes in reality), and I finally managed to escape by diving under the boat and getting out into open water. Fortunately (for me), these guys don't usually stray far from a reef wall. He was fine under the boat, or up near the reef, but didn't really want to venture out into the open water after me. So, I managed to escape, which ended the comedy show for my buddies on the boat.

I dived down and managed to locate my buddy's camera and brought it back, threatening to send it back down again if anyone got the bright idea to toss a bunch of egg shells in the water when I got up near the boat! And thus ended the story of my encounter with a giant Sea Wrasse, but you can imagine my shock coming face to face with a fish which was bigger than me right after jumping in the water!

Memorable experience to be sure!

If you want to see what one of these monsters looks like...

Humphead Wrasse

Great story. I never got my scuba license for in Asia I just rented the equipment and boat and went scuba diving. Since I was young bold and stupid I figured watching "Sea Hunt" told me all I needed to know. Asian waters never a problem but I never went deeper than maybe 25 feet around islands back in 1975.. Fast forward to 1979 and the Red Sea. I doubt if there is a more hostile body of water on the planet. I did not scuba dive there just snorkeled with my long always armed spear gun. You could walk out maybe 75 yards ankle deep, knee deep, avoiding the rock fish and Lion Fish until you came upon a cliff face that dropped about 100 feet shear down. The water was so clear you could see the bottom and whatever swimming all the way down. The sharks were everywhere but as I did not spear fish they would leave me alone and if not a little prodding from the spear gun would make them go away.

Now along the shear face of the coral cliff it was rumored there was a very territorial Moray Eel. This rumor became fact one day when a group of Brits were out spear fishing. I think they liked the sharks to try and take their speared fish so they could do battle; One Brit was at least 300 pounds, big guy and not all fat. Anyway they were swimming back along the face of the coral cliff when they must have gotten to close to the Moray's den. The guy behind Mr. Big said the Moray came out of the coral cliff lightning fast and bit the flipper off of Mr. Big's foot. Who then did the best Jesus Christ act anyone has seen for a couple of thousand years as Mr. Big surfaced screaming like a little girl and basically ran the 75 yards on top of the water to dry land; or so his buds used to say. The Moray was as big around as the guys upper leg....!

I was not there but certainly heard the story more than once and made sure I avoided that particular part of the reef.

Mr. Big always looked sheepish when the story was told.. I will say this about the ocean..There are critters in them there parts that will flat out kill you in a very ugly way...no kidding.

a reply to: 727Sky

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Cool. I'd try to jab him into those botox lips but only if he came too close. [movie punching sound]

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

...my buddies rolling around laughing at what was happening! Great! No help! Worse, now they were throwing even more egg shells in the water left and right and enjoying the antics of me shucking and jiving to try and escape from this huge fish.

At this↑ exact moment, I'm pretty sure my response would've been something like,
"F*** you then. Go get your own dam camera."

Cool story, what an adventure!

My dad married a nice lady from Malaysia after my mom passed. It took me awhile to get used to seeing her eat meals without using utensils.

I've lost stuff into the drink before, and wished I had gear to retrieve it. I always told myself, "someday you'll come back here and get those Vuarnets". But, instead, I just bought cheap sunglasses for the rest of my life...

a reply to: seattlerat

It's funny how the cheap sunglasses that you don't care about, almost always seem to last for years without getting broken, crushed, sat on, etc.. or lost.

Whereas the expensive one's that you try to always keep track of and try to take care of, rarely make it through a single Summer.

a reply to: 727Sky

It's kind of ironic really; the critters which will actually hurt you the worst diving are some of the ones you least expect. And the ones that have the baddest reputations are usually the ones which would rather run away.

A classic example is sharks. Most sharks want less to do with a diver than divers want to do with them. Morays and Barracuda's, on the other hand, will leave you with a lifelong memory in the form of a really big scar! Barracuda's were always the ones I watched out for because those things would go right for your face! It wasn't that they were aggressive and hated humans, it was the flash of the glass on your mask in the sun. Those Barracuda's wold see that flash and they would strike instantly! And they are so freaking fast; they come out of nowhere...and BOOM!! Knew 3-4 guys who got nailed in the face by a Barracuda, and some of those 'cuda's can get BIG too! Morays were the same way; guys would get bit because of the flash of their mask and/or sticking their arm in a hole after something. And as you noted, Morays can get HUGE too, like you noted...as big as your thigh. Most of the ones we saw in my years diving over there were smaller though. And the problem with Morays wasn't so much the bite as much as the infection that came afterwards.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Do they make masks that are specifically designed to minimize the flash caused by the Suns reflection?

If it can potentially trigger certain fish into becoming that aggressive, then it seems it would be well worth it to pay a little bit more for a mask that reduces that risk.

I may be thinking about it wrong, but maybe a slight curve would be better than a completely flat surface on the mask.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Not that I'm aware of. I would think something like that with curved glass would distort your vision which could get pretty disorienting underwater.

Interesting idea though!