The welcome letter from the resort cautioned us from going near the fish during snorkeling or diving. A book on the marine life of Maldives, found in every villa for guests to refer to, called it the “most dangerous fish in the Maldives”.
While renting our snorkeling equipment, the staff at the Dive Centre also gave us friendly advice on how to fend one off in the event it attacked us, adding a caveat that this was however “rather rare”. That didn't exactly make us feel better.
The fish doesn’t usually attack, but during mating season, can get very territorial and guard its nest ferociously. Its strong teeth can crush rocks and coral, so imagine what this Titan can do to you, if you intrude into its territory. Yikes.
Being paranoid, I forced the husband to agree on hand signals we should give to warn each other if we were to encounter one underwater, before we went for our maiden snorkeling trip,
We only spotted the fish during our second trip.
With its large head, dark coloured lips and ghastly green tinge, it was not hard to miss.
Even though it was a good 10-15m away, we froze and kept as still as we could. Thankfully, the fish didn’t see us (or care about us I think) and we waited for it to swim away, before we continued snorkeling.
This video shows how violent the fish can be.
Just wanted to say that even though I haven't been commenting, I'm reading your blog regularly and I love your Maldives posts!
ReplyDeleteMiss you babe!
Ooh yes, the trigger fish. We were warned about this fish when we were learning how to scuba dive. It sounds scarier than a great white!
ReplyDeleteYZ - Miss you too! I'm glad there's Twitter/MSN/email to keep in touch :)
ReplyDeletemiss ene - You're right, it does sound more menacing than a great white! In fact, the thought of being attached by a shark never crossed our mind when we were underwater haha.