Is an Eel capable of recognizing and even befriending a human diver? Today we dove the creature feature with Captain Slate and we must say that our impression is a definite yes.
Slate and his crew from Tavernier have been diving these same spots for 25 years or more and there is no doubt that the creatures know him. They come out to play and put on a show for the lucky divers that join him on his famous Creature Feature which takes place every Friday and Sunday mornings. Book early as it does get sold out often.
Watching Captain Slate in action is quite something. While some may frown on the idea of unnaturally affecting a wild creature’s habitat or environment, you can see the love Slate has for these creatures, the reef, and diving in general. The love does seem to be reciprocated by these amazing creatures. Leslie (they all have names) is affectionately known as the queen of the reef. One look and you can see why. This 6+ foot green moray is one that would have any diver do a double take. Watching her with Slate however, you almost see her melt in his arms as he scratches her under the chin and rubs her cheeks. She does not run away, but comes back over and over again. It seems that it is definitely more than just the bait Slate uses to feed her, but there seems to be a genuine affection or friendship. You don’t see quite the same behavior with the other divers, she may come close (perhaps human divers all look alike to Morays!) but there is a special magic when she approaches Slate. He is like the Moray eel whisperer!
While we’ve seen videos of the Creature Feature with barracudas, Goliath groupers, and nurse sharks joining the party for breakfast, on our outing we had to content ourselves with the two morays. Kneeling on the bottom in the 75-degree waters for almost an hour took its toll but the whole group of us was just mesmerized with the spectacle.
Our second dive to Spanky Reef, did deliver exceptional visibility as well and numerous nurse sharks and huge schools of yellowtail snappers. Slate tells us that he also does feeding on this reef but that he was unable to obtain his bait that morning. All the same, it was just a beautiful dive with crystal clear waters, a good 60-70 ft visibility and nice colorful reefs just full of life. We saw schools of yellowtail snappers that must have numbered in the thousands; we followed them for a bit. Other sightings included squirrelfish, boxfish, lots and lots of Angel, trumpet, and colorful wraths and other reef fish.
We had been trying to do this dive for a while but had bad luck with weather, and travel in the past. When we heard Dixie Divers had chartered the boat for the day, we signed up right away. It was an early start since we’re two hours away but there is not a lot of traffic at 6am on Sunday and it was smooth sailing.
Captain Slate’s shop goes out regularly. On his website, he has done over 12000 dives and is looking to achieve 20,000! He was a founding father of the Keys Association of Dive Operators in 1984 and the current president of the Florida Association of Dive Operators, which he helped found in 1986. He was inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2004.
The shop has two nice and roomy 40+ft boats (and even a smaller third one from what we could see). We were a large group of 24 on the boat (with crew). The crew was top notch and helped us make the most of the dive even helping us fix a faulty valve on one of the rented tanks so we didn’t miss a beat. This was all done to some great background tunes from the 60s and 70s a la rock and roll! While a little out of the way for us, we would certainly recommend them for anyone in Key Largo or its environs; worth spending a night or two in the keys also if you want to make this part of a longer adventure. Slate even does a themed Easter dive wearing a bunny outfit and hiding Eggs. We’re visiting family this Easter but if that we’re not the case, this is probably where you’d find us! How can you miss that?
Diving the keys is a great experience, while the water was a little cold in March (74-75) but the visibility was great and we estimated 70-80 ft. Around Fort Lauderdale and Miami we typically see more in the 40-60 range. Almost all the dives in the keys are quite shallow on the reefs. Not to be missed is the famous Christ of the Abyss… There are also many special wrecks to be seen.
Just another example of how lucky we are to be in South Florida and to have these wonderful places in our backyard to go visit.