Rare sighting of the Secretive Dragon Eel!

On the 2nd of December I took two experienced divers for a very shallow afternoon dive, as they are both underwater photographers and like some time to look for macro marine life.

The goal of the dive was to find the very secretive living Dragon eel. Only one place to go: that's to "Groupers Rock". A shallow coral patch at about 6m deep on the corner of Kichouani. We found tons of different eels, but for the first half hour, frustrating enough, the dragon eel was invisible.

But, to my big surprise, although very briefly, I spotted a tiny baby dragon eel, only about one cm thick. Shame enough, it was camera shy and disappeared in its hole very quickly. Then, to our big luck, the "big" dragon eel poked its head out of its hole and was really posing for us until we snapped hundreds of pictures. It's a stunning creature with its double set of horns and its colourful appearance. Our day could not go wrong anymore...and we had the first sighting of a new young dragon eel on top!!

Posted: &BEYOND Mnemba Island by Jan Christiaens, Date: 1 January 2008