The Shark and the Eel – Who Survived?

Kiwini Hall is one of Maui’s most experienced watermen, having body-surfed, dived, paddled and driven boats here his whole life. Kiwini has been a SNUBA instructor on the catamaran Lani Kai for many years. He is one of the luckiest people I know, having spent his entire life doing what he loves. Even so, twenty years ago when he told us about an encounter he had had underwater with an eel and a shark, we admit we were just a tiny bit skeptical… until today.

This is what we saw as we approached the area with all the commotion.

We were mid-way into our dive when we noticed that many fish had been attracted by a commotion in about 40 feet of water. As we approached we could see the back half of a baby whitetip reef shark thrashing around with its head in a crevice. We thought that perhaps it was trying to capture or extract a fish or an octopus from the hole, because we have seen whitetips do this before. After about 30 seconds we caught a glimpse of a yellowmargin moray twisting and turning in the hole as well. The shark was trying to get at an eel! Or wait – were they both fighting over a fish?

We all had our cameras glued to the scene when it finally became clear – the moray eel was eating the shark. This was the same scenario Kiwini had related to us, and that at the time seemed unbelievable.

Yellowmargin moray swallowing a baby whitetip reef shark. Molokini, July 4, 2018. Photo: P. Fiene

For about 5 minutes the eel thrashed and twisted, sometimes making progress in swallowing the shark and sometimes losing ground.

Yellowmargin moray gripping a baby whitetip reef shark after spitting it out. Molokini, July 4, 2018. Photo: P. Fiene

At one point the eel pushed the shark out of its throat and hung onto the side of its body, seemingly trying to come up with a plan that would allow him to eat this fabulous catch. He tried swallowing the shark again and got it about half-way in, no farther than the first time. After a few more minutes of violent struggling, the eel suddenly gave up, pushed the shark out of his throat, and swam swiftly away.

Baby whitetip reef shark recovering after being eaten and then spit back out of a yellow margin moray. Molokini, July 4, 2018. Photo: P. Fiene

Of course we assumed the baby shark was dead. How could a baby survive such a thrashing, which had lasted for at least 10 minutes. But, just as in Kiwini’s story, where his eel gave up and swam away as well, the shark was actually alive. We approached the crevice and could see that the shark’s mouth and gill slits were opening and closing. Its eye appeared irritated and it had a few small bloody cuts on its body, but otherwise appeared surprisingly intact. Shark skin must be very tough!

And of course it appeared exhausted. Too exhausted and in shock to even straighten its pectoral fin which was curled forward against the bottom.

About 10 minutes later a pregnant female shark showed up, possibly attracted by the scent of blood, and spent a minute searching and finally homing in on the crevice. We thought she would try to eat the injured baby. Instead she put her snout into the crevice and just held it there very still for about 20 seconds. Then she pulled back and left. Did she think she might find potential prey? And did it take her some time to discern that it was not prey, but instead one of her kind? Or was there some sort of protective instinct in regard to one of her own species?

By the way, if you’re wondering how a moray can pull a struggling animal into its mouth, moray eels have a second set of jaws back in their throat called pharyngeal jaws. These jaws can thrust forward, grasp the prey and pull it farther in. There are some great photos and diagrams of them here, or for a human re-enactment you can check out Maddy’s wonderful demonstration of pharyngeal jaws on the Maui Dreams Facebook page.

Kiwini, apologies for doubting you :-). It took twenty years for us to have the exact experience you described. It was worth waiting for.

Written by Pauline Fiene

********