Eel dies after trying to feed on deadly puffer fish

An eel died after trying to swallow a puffer fish that inflated in the predator’s mouth, causing it to suffocate.

German-born scuba diving instructor Tim Mayer stumbled upon the strange sight on the island of Titikaveka, park of the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean last month.

Tim said his first thought was that it was a piece of driftwood, but as he walked closer alongside three-year-old daughter Charlie, he realised what he had found.

“As we got closer I realised it was an eel, so I rushed back to the villa to get my phone. I was breathless and excited but didn’t tell [wife] Lucile or  [son] Yann what we’d found. We all ran down to the beach and it was such a spectacle. The eel would have been about 1.3metre long.”

On being contacted, local marine biologist Kirby Morejohn explained that the eel likely tried to feed on the porcupine puffer fish, which then inflated as a defence mechanism.

Unlike most fish that breathe using gills that are located behind their heads, he said, eels suck water in through their mouths, much the same way as humans breathe air. Having the pufferfish lodged in its throat likely caused the eel to suffocate, Kirby concluded.

Kirby said he had never seen anything like it before.

“I was blown away when I saw it,” he said.  “I couldn’t believe that this type of interaction existed and that I’d never heard about it.”

“One of the reasons eels are perceived as scary is due to their open, gaping, toothy mouths, but it turns out this is how they breathe.”

“After the eel’s dinner inflated and lodged in its mouth, the eel would not have been able to draw in water and likely died from suffocation.

“Nature usually seems to have sorted out the kinks. If porcupine fish are normally on an eel’s menu, I’d expect eels to target sizes that can be swallowed. But clearly, this isn’t the case.”

Tim said: “It looks like the porcupine fish got the better of the eel but they both paid the ultimate price. And right behind them a rainbow was plunging into the horizon. It was surreal.”