There is no more ferocious defender of a crop than a Damsel fish.

--kc

> X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 17:40:37 -0700
> Reply-To: SouthEast US Scuba Diving Travel list <[log in to unmask]>
> Sender: SouthEast US Scuba Diving Travel list <[log in to unmask]>
> From: Wayne & Rita McKenzie <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] The Flesh Ripping Monster of the Indo-Pacific,
> <Balistoides viridescens> (A little NEDish, a lot serious, and a caution
> sign for Angelo)
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> A Trigger Fish??
>
>
> At 07:15 PM 9/10/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >.       You won't read about it in DAN's edition of Skin Diver, but in the
> >regular edition DeLoach and Humann have exposed the identity of the most
> >vicious, blood-spilling horror that they have discovered in 30 years of
> >exploration of tropical reefs.  It's not the great white or the killer
> >whale.  Neither is it the tiger shark nor the oceanic whitetip that took
> >the lives of so many sailors from the Indianapolis.  No, it's nothing
> >cautious like a shark that a diver can combat.  It gives fear; but it
> >doesn't have fear.  In fact, before the blood clouds the water, the last
> >thing that most victims remember in their flailing efforts to escape are
> >the twin, vampire-like fangs driving at them in attack after attack.  Like
> >the toothed steel jaws of a bear trap crushing the leg of a grizzly, these
> >jaws were meant to bite.
> >
> >         And they don't just attack the careless or naive newbie.  The
> >attack on DeLoach verifies  what most NEDs know, that even ultra-cautious
> >dive gods can easily become victims of this hulking demon that's ten times
> >the length of the most ferocious damselfish.  This living nightmare can't
> >be fended off with a push from a camera as many sharks can, no, the
> attacks
>come fast and furious and survivors count themselves lucky to just
> swim
>away with lost fins and a handful of bone gouging scars.  It's not
> pretty;
>the attacks are unprovoked and stop as mysteriously as they start
> so if you
> >ever find yourself on open sand with scattered coral patches in the
> >Indo-Pacific, keep your eyes open for the living nightmare, Balistoides
> >viridescens.
> >
> >
> >DPTNST,
> >
> >
> >John
> >
>