QUEER MAN-KILLERSD

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 29

QUEER MAN-KILLERSD

j Sea?ti:eatures; that are" dangerous ,tosi humanj beings are not all. shark- and octopus.; :;Among the pearl arid trochus-shell;diver?,.pf;-the far north of Queensland i.no.^creatur^ is- more. feared &ah the long-tailed reef eel (\yrites Ewen K. P ; attersbh;'iri 'the Melbourne "Argus"), f To most people the name .eel conjures up visions 6t slippery creatures about 3ft 4n 'length that, are: desirable for" the table..; The eels:iearedbyi;therdivers of ~•..Nortti Queensland '■ have no ■ food valueforchumanL beings.; Instead they are.mailHE!aters,.:the. only. /■man-eating eels in Australian waters. * ;'. '• They attain a length of anything up to 12ft or more, and their great bronzed bodies are .sometimes 3ft in circumference. They live drily in tropical and sub-tropical waters, and Queensland has the distinction^! having supplied the largest specimen .ever caught in the world (that is, as far as is known). Thi3 monster, which; measured 12ft lliri in length, was landed by a fisherman at Marbochydore in February, 1929, after a great struggle. .. Few marine creatures are as ferocious as these reef eels. They fear nothing that swims. Even the fiercest shark is helpless against thei •' onslaughts.- I once saw a fight between a 12ft tiger shark and a 10ft reef eel. It was not a real fight; it was simply slaughter^ because the eel, turning and living with astonishing rapidity. literilly ripped the shark to pieces. First me side, then the other, then below, md then above, the eel's teeth tore and ilashed at the; shark's body. The eel Ud not desist until a "school" of other iharks, attracted by the commotion, ippeared on the.scene.' Then the eel Kot away like a streak, leaving the lewcomers to. concentrate on their lying fellow, which they ate. The reef eel is admirably equipped vith .teeth. . Its long-pointed, jaws are rmedwith great razor-sharp angs,. which slant inward, and the oof of'the mouth ;is.studded with tiny, eedle-sharp.; teeth, also slanting in/ard-. ■ Thus, once an eel has seized its rey the. victim ,neye'r. escapes. The eels mostly live in caverns in ie sides of coral reefs deep down clow the surface: of the water, but rtien searching for food they dart bout at a terrific speed, snatching here nd there fishes, large and small. Kingsh, cod, mackerel—they are all the

same to the eel. Fish tob large, to se swallowed in one gulp are snapped in halves with one bite, and in another the great pieces of scaly flesh and bone are bolted down the-capacious throat. When seeking food the eel rarely passes any diver. There is a swirl in the water, and t when the disturbance is over the diver can. consider himself fortunate if he rises to .the surface minus only a limb.' The attack of the - monster is so sudde.i. and. so fierce that the diver has very little chance of defending' himself. Another unusual man-killer of these waters is the giant clam,.which is the largest bivalve'mollusc known. Along the Great Barrier Reef these amazing molluscs, which are like.. gigantic cockleshells, attain a lerigth'of anything up to Bft, but according to stories told by northern divers monsters up to. 14ft in length are to be found in the deeper waters. The clam is a great shell hinged in two par^s. like, the oyster, and an idea of its. size may be. gained, from the fact that one half of a medium-sized clam.. shell is easily large enough to provide a bath for a child; indeed, many women in the Far North use the shells for this purpose. The weight Of the shells, which are.several inches in thickness near the base, is astonishing; it take two men all-their time to lift a moderately-sized clam. In spite of its great size the clam lives on the tiniest organisms in the water. Nearly all day and night, with its shells wide open and with its great flabby body exposed, it feeds by sucking in water which,- after everything of food value has been extracted, is ejected. Often the water is ejected with great force, and along the coral reefs it is often seen shooting up. some Jeet into the air like a miniature waterspout. ... At the least sign of danger the clam closes its shells with a swirl. This habit has. caused the death of divers, native, and other. They have- placed a foot in a closing clam, and with.the limb held as in a! vice they have been trapped until the rising tide puts an end to their struggles. It is impossible to prise open the shells of a clam, but it-is a simple matter to open the mollusc with a crowbar or a large knife. All that is necessary is to paralyse the great nerve-centre which controls the shell muscle and the shell will gape.