There is some pretty amazing wildlife to be seen at Salang. Most divers underrate it as a site where they never see anything, but unlike a zoo, sightings aren’t guaranteed in a real marine environment. You just need to be in the right place at the right time. During the survey weekend, some of the divers were fortunate enough to see Mr Snake Eel doing what a snake eel does and for those of you who missed it, the whole exciting experience was caught on camera.
This particular snake eel was spotted before by Gemma and Leon when they were setting up the perimeter. During that first encounter, Mr Snake Eel had been half buried in the sand when he pounced on what looked like a sea cucumber, wrestling with it for a while, before swallowing it and disappearing off deeper down the sandy slope. Neither of the divers knew much about snake eels, but it would seem that this was another resident of the Salang Menagerie.
As luck would have it, Mr Snake Eel decided to pay the divers a visit during the survey weekend in October 2012. This time he was spotted coming up the sandy slope towards the survey site. He was out hunting and paid very little attention to the divers, whom he allowed to get quite close. Food was obviously the only thing on his mind.
When filming began, he was feeling the barren sand with his feelers, when he suddenly stopped and used his tail to burrow backwards into the sand. After a moment, he flipped round and pulled something out from the sand, swallowing it and swimming off. Using screen shots of the hunt, friends of Jun were able to name his dinner for us. Mr Snake Eel had been hunting a peanut worm.
So next time you are diving over barren sand, keep your eyes peeled, whether it’s a family of stingrays or Mr Snake Eel, you never know what secrets are waiting to show themselves.
Over the next few years hopefully this little guy will continue to hang around, and we will get to learn more about snake eels and witness more hunts.
Written and shot on a GoPro Hero 2 by Gemma Thomas on the 28th of October 2012.
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