Petting a Friendly Fish

PETTING A FRIENDLY FISH 
WITH VID
BY Mikey Jones
This is the adorable moment a fish swims over to a diver to be petted!
The diver can be seen stroking the fish in Florida, USA.
The diver, Jonah Kowall, filmed the footage while out diving.
Jonah said: “In the video there is a friendly juvenile Goliath Grouper who comes up to me and enjoys being pet and scratched. 
This fish is about 1 meter long (3 feet) and around 100lb, but they reach sizes of 6-7ft (2+ meters) and over 800lb. 
I use a rebreather, so there are no bubbles, and it's silent, making wildlife more comfortable around me. 
I normally do not touch wildlife, and I am an avid conservationist and diver cleaning the reefs and the ocean every weekend I am home. 
This fish was very friendly and clearly enjoyed the attention, so I gave it to him very gently. 
They are intelligent animals and often will give you signals towards things they want you to give them.
For example, we hunt lionfish, which are an invasive species on our reefs (and in the Caribbean), and often grouper will "point" to the lionfish waiting for you to shoot the fish and feed it to them. 
ENDS