Ocean
Watch
Monday, November 2, 1998
Morays—especially giant ones
—mustn’t be ignored
SOMETIMES, when I'm trying to decide what topic to
write about in my next column, a marine animal practically grabs me by the
lapels and shouts, "Me! Me! Write about me!"
That happened last week during a trip to the Big
Island's Kona Coast.
I was thinking about doing a piece on the spinner
dolphins of Kealakekua Bay, but moray eels kept elbowing their way to the
forefront.
Either someone was telling me a story about morays, or
an intrepid eel was stretching from its hiding place and staring me in the
face.
OK, I got the message. Moray eels deserve respect, too.
Especially big ones.
The story I heard came from two Big Island lifeguards.
They were scuba diving off the Kona Coast when they saw a greenish,
10-foot-long moray eel as big around as a large man's thigh.
While the divers were watching, this giant moray ate a
10-pound lobster. The enormous eel scared the divers so much, they left
the water.
They wondered if I had ever heard of such a big eel in
Hawaiian waters.
Well, not one quite that long. And 10-pound lobsters
usually occur only in divers' dreams.
Still, even factoring in a couple of
adrenaline-generated feet on the moray and a few water-magnified pounds on
the lobster, there is one species of eel that could grow that large and
eat that big. It's called, appropriately, the giant moray, and although
rare in Hawaii, it has been seen here.
Giant morays have measured 8 feet long and weighed up
to 77 pounds.
They may, however, grow up to 10 feet long and weigh up
to 154 pounds, making this species the world's largest (but not longest)
moray eel.
These morays are light brown with dark blotches and
small, dark brown spots over their entire bodies, like leopards. However,
I've seen a picture of this eel that looks distinctly green-tinged, making
the lifeguards' sighting of a giant green eel reasonable.
GIANT morays are fairly common in some parts of the
Pacific and Indian oceans, including nearby Johnston Island. Because of
their enormous size, these eels are likely to be encountered by divers in
those places.
But don't lose any sleep over a possible encounter with
this eel. Like many other moray species, this one eats fish and shellfish,
mostly at night, and isn't the least bit interested in biting people. Just
don't reach into its hiding place or tease it.
The most likely way to be hurt by the giant moray is to
eat it. Since its size puts it high in the food chain, this fish is
usually full of ciguatoxin, the poison in reef fish poisoning.
The giant moray may take the prize in brawn, but in
length it rates second. The longest moray eel is the giant estuarine
moray, a species that lives in the muddy bottoms of tidal rivers and inner
bays from East Africa to Fiji, including Guam.
This estuarine eel grows to just under 13 feet in
length, but its skinny body makes it a mere slip of an eel compared to the
giant moray. An 8-foot-long estuarine eel weighs about 10 pounds.
After my talk with the lifeguards, I drove to
Kealakekua Bay to go snorkeling. From the shoreline I could see spinner
dolphins off in the distance entertaining some kayakers.
I jumped into the water and immediately saw a
white-mouthed moray eel swimming freely, an unusual event for midday.
I followed this eel, watching it wind in and out of
coral rocks, and soon spotted two other white-mouthed morays.
I stopped.
Boldly, the eels faced me, jaws opening and closing
rhythmically.
"Forget those silly dolphins. Write about
US," they seemed to demand.
I never argue with morays. Even little ones.
