The research does not always go as we plan, does it?

My plan was to record the feeding session of the giant manta ray at the Atlantis Aquarium from underwater, but without influencing his regular feeding behavior, so no divers or snorkelers could be around. I was really happy that I had purchased a tiny underwater spy camera before my trip and I was so excited to put it in work for its first real mission.
As the feeding time approached I carefully picked the `airplane wreck` to attach my camera to which was very close to the feeding spot, so I expected a great, close view to the manta ray while he is responding to the different stimuli given by the feeder from the surface.

The feeder started feeding the smaller fish already at other parts of the tank, so it was time for me to jump in the water and snorkel down, to attach the camera to the `airplane wreck`. The wreck had some poles and edges that made it a convenient place to attach the small camera to. I fixed it as hard as I could and started the recording before I left the tank to give place for the plankton feeding frenzy.
The feeding went well and after about 15 minutes I jumped back to recover my precious footages. When I got there I saw the empty airplane wreck pole without my little camera attached to it. Apparently, something happened to it. It was so firmly attached that I was sure it could not just fall off by itself, somebody really had to work on removing it….and no divers were in the water during feeding, larger fish such as the manta was feeding close to the surface, so what happened? Who did that? Where is my precious camera with my even more precious footage???

All the aquarium staff who was available was in the water snorkeling with me within the next 5 minutes, trying to find my camera, but we had no luck. At that point I really started to worry for the fish, although the camera was too big to be eaten by a small fish and we kept our eyes on the big fish so we were sure they could not have eaten it either. But what happened then and why we don`t find it?
I was keep thinking about it during the night what might have happened, but when I got to the aquarium early morning to observe the manta before visitors are coming I saw the staff divers cleaning the tanks and vacuuming the algae from the bottom of the tank….and suddenly one of the divers smiled and waved at me when he saw me on the other side of the window, and he took out my little spy camera from the pocket of his BC! I was jumping up and down was so happy that he found it: it was not eaten and if it is still working we can figure out what happened!

The camera and its case were in good condition and I had recordings too! Yes, the fish even pushed the recording button more times. I do not want to make people dizzy by showing the footage how the camera was spinning around like crazy in the water column while several smaller fish attacked it, likely because of its lens reflections, but I just showed you here a few snapshots about the curious attackers.

The final attack soon pushed the camera under a rock, far away from the airplane wreck where the fish could not reach it anymore, but it was keep recording for another 1,5 hour while its battery lasted.

Another lesson from the ocean learned: you should never underestimate fish!