The thick green-brown head watching from under a boulder, mouth slowly opening and closing, is the largest moray most snorkelers and divers meet in Cabo. By day it stays in its hole; at night it leaves the rocks to hunt by smell.
A long, thick, muscular eel with a heavy, blunt snout, small eyes and fang-like conical teeth. No pectoral fins and no scales; the dorsal fin starts on the head, ahead of the gill opening, and runs into the tail. Color is plain brown to brownish green or green, sometimes with a few white or yellow flecks, mostly on the rear half of the body. Juveniles are dark to blackish, with a whitish edge on the dorsal fin.
The Panamic green moray lives only in the tropical eastern Pacific, from the Gulf of California to Ecuador, including the Galápagos. It is mainly a rocky-reef fish of boulder fields and walls, between about 1 and 35 m deep, while juveniles also turn up in mangroves. In the Gulf it has been recorded around at least 21 islands, and visual reef surveys found it at Santa Rosalía, Loreto, Cabo Pulmo and Los Cabos, always as a small fraction (under 1%) of the fish counted.
It is a carnivore that eats fish, octopus, shrimp and crabs. By day it hides in holes, crevices and under boulders with only the head showing; at night it forages in the open and may move 10 to 20 m away from shelter over sand. Morays hunt mainly by smell rather than sight. Its larvae drift in the open sea, as in other morays, before settling on the reef.
In its Caribbean relative, the green moray, the skin itself is dark grey-brown; a thick yellow mucus over it makes the fish look green and helps protect it from parasites and disease. Its Pacific cousin’s color ranges from brown to green, a variation that has not been studied in detail.
Source ↗A moray opening and closing its mouth is pumping water over its gills. It’s a normal breathing motion, not a warning that it is about to bite.
Source ↗The Panamic green moray reacts strongly to the scent of injured prey more than 20 m away, and at night leaves its hole to hunt over open sand 10 to 20 m from shelter.
Source ↗Morays can’t suck prey in like most fish. In the reticulated moray, researchers filmed a second set of jaws in the throat shooting forward into the mouth to grab prey and drag it down; this happened in 88% of the swallowing sequences recorded.
Source ↗Morays are clients of cleaner shrimp. In French Polynesia, scientists watched a cleaner shrimp crawl along a giant moray’s body at night, walk into its mouth and out the other side, in three cleaning visits of 14 to 24 seconds each.
Source ↗Juveniles are dark to blackish with a white-edged dorsal fin, very different from the green adults, and besides reefs they are also found in mangrove areas.
Source ↗Around Los Cabos, snorkelers and divers see it in rocky coves and reefs such as those between Cabo San Lucas and Cabo Pulmo, usually as a head poking out from under a boulder. Anglers meet it when bottom fishing with bait over rocky reefs close to shore, when a moray takes a strip or chunk meant for snappers or groupers. It is not a target species, and it’s usually released.
A hooked moray twists into a ball on the way up and curls up the leader once it’s out of the water, so don’t bring it into the boat or grab it. Keep it at the side of the boat, use long pliers or a dehooker if the hook is easy to reach, and otherwise cut the leader as close to the hook as you safely can. Morays aren’t aggressive, but a bite can cut skin, muscle and tendons and get infected; never put your hands into holes on the reef, and get medical care for any bite.
| Mexico (NOM-059) | Not listed as at risk (2019 update) |
|---|---|
| Sport fishing (NOM-017-PESC-1994) | Not a listed sport target; if kept, it counts toward the general 10-fish daily total (max 5 of one species) and requires a sport-fishing permit when caught from a boat |
| Protected areas | Cabo San Lucas is a Flora and Fauna Protection Area with its own management rules; Cabo Pulmo National Park has followed a no-fishing strategy since 1995 |
| IUCN Red List | Least Concern (assessed 2007) |
Anglers rarely keep it. Its Caribbean relative, the green moray, carries a substantial risk of ciguatera poisoning, so releasing it is the better choice.
The fine-spotted moray (Gymnothorax dovii) is also brown to greenish brown but is peppered with many small white spots and has a slender, pointed head. The jewel moray (Muraena lentiginosa) is much smaller (to about 60 cm), brown with dark-edged yellow spots and tube-like nostrils, and the zebra moray (Gymnomuraena zebra) is banded black and white with blunt, crushing teeth.
They are not aggressive and usually stay in their holes, but a bite can cause deep cuts and infection. Don’t put your hands into crevices or try to feed them.
It’s breathing. Opening and closing the mouth pumps water over the gills; it is not a threat display.
Keep it in the water at the side of the boat, don’t grab it, and unhook it with long pliers or cut the leader close to the hook.
Top illustration: Top Anglers. Photos: iNaturalist contributors, credited on each photo.
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