In Reply to: Dive Report: Malibu & Noodling Triggerfish posted by Patrick on February 11, 2007 at 12:29:39:

The truly remarkable thing is not that Pat grabbed one but that he ever thought try it. Who (other than Swami Pat in the search for total enlightenment) would even think to try to grab one of those good-sized trigger fish by the tail. Anyone who has spent much time diving in the Indo-Pacific knows: “The most dangerous of the trigger fishes are the tropical Indo-Pacific species Pseudobalistes fuscus and Balistotoides viridescens. Ordinarily these two fishes are shy, but when guarding a nest, they are extremely aggressive and will chase a diver for quite a distance. Divers should not continue to swim toward a large triggerfish that does not move away upon their approach.” A common sight is to see them bite off big chunks of solid coral – I can imagine that would be a finger with ease or a piece of tissue the size of a walnut. That would be ugly. Indeed, the first thing I did when Pat climbed into the boat was count his fingers – they added up to 10 which Pat swears is what he started with. The other boat partners are telling me that in addition to having our tanks visually tested yearly, we now need to administer IQ tests to all Moby Kate divers once a year. The proposed cut off IQ score to continue diving is the number of the person’s fingers and toes…