Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Territorial Fish!

Whenever a shark attacks a human it is sensational headline news.  It would make news, sharks can kill people and sometimes do.  Almost always a shark is going for somebody on the surface of the water; swimmers, snorkelers and surfers.  They rarely ever go for divers.  I guess we aren't acting like a food source.

There are some things under the sea that will attack divers, especially if divers are blundering near their nest.

Such was the case in August when we were in Egypt.  This beautiful Titan triggerfish systematically went for each and every diver in our group. The above footage was shot by a person in that dive group.  Me and my family managed to stay out of the way of the camera.  My husband and son were canny enough to move further out into the blue when the attacks started and viewed the whole scene with interest.  I was grateful that when he went for divers, including me, he kept his attention on fins.  If he had bitten any other part, we would have needed stitches.  They have hard coral biting mouths.

I have a nick out of my fin now.  I kind of like that.  It reminds me of a beautiful dive in warm water and of a very territorial fish we saw.

1 comment:

dogbait said...

Shark attacks here seem to slip past the main news. In fact, we had 3 fatal attacks in Western Oz over the last couple of months and I barely heard about them. They don't seem to make the "Come to Oz" ads either!