Moray Eels in Galápagos: Facts and Where to See Them

A moray looks threatening with its mouth always opening and closing, but that is how it breathes. Its small, round gills sit far back on the flanks, so the eel has to keep gulping water through its mouth and over them.

• A second set of jaws. Further back in the throat sit pharyngeal jaws, complete with small teeth. When a moray bites, it launches them forward into the mouth, grips the prey and pulls it into the throat. Morays are the only animals known to catch and hold prey this way.
• Slime instead of scales. Their smooth skin has no scales and is covered in a protective mucus, which in some species contains a toxin.
• Hunting partners. Elsewhere in the world, groupers have been seen recruiting giant morays to hunt together, the moray reaching into crevices the grouper cannot.

Moray eel habitat is the rocky reef: holes, cracks and rubble where a long body can hide with only the head showing. Most species live in warm salt water, from shallow inshore water down to deep slopes. Morays are opportunistic predators of smaller fish, crabs and octopuses; they work through the reef from hole to hole.

In Galápagos, the Charles Darwin Foundation describes the jewel moray as a carnivore of the rocky seafloor and Gymnothorax porphyreus as a yellowish to grey-brown moray of shallow rocky reefs that grows to 130 cm. During a snorkel, a moray is usually seen as a head looking out of a crack in the rock.

Guide sighting records list moray eels at 1 site: Darwin Bay on Genovesa, where the visit includes snorkelling along the rocky edge of the bay. The guides rate it Rare, so a moray there is a bonus rather than something to plan around. Because morays hide in crevices, the records likely understate them: they are easy to swim past.

Moray eels live in Galápagos all year, so no month rules them out. In the next twelve months, 369 departures stop at the site where they are recorded.

Not if left alone. A moray's gaping mouth is breathing, not a threat, and they stay in their holes rather than chase swimmers. A bite happens when a hand goes into a crevice or near the head, and with two sets of jaws and backward-pointing grip, it is a bite to avoid. Some species carry a toxin in their skin mucus, and large reef morays such as the giant moray can build up ciguatoxin in their bodies, which poisons people who eat them.

The species recorded in Galápagos are listed as Least Concern. Galápagos National Park rules keep visitors at least 2 metres from wildlife, even when an animal comes closer.

1. Reaching into cracks. Morays live in holes in the rock. Keep hands off the reef and out of crevices.
2. Taking the open mouth as an attack. It is how a moray breathes; a calm look from a distance is fine.
3. Expecting to see one on every snorkel. The guide records rate Darwin Bay Rare, and morays stay hidden most of the day.
4. Diving down to the head. Keep your distance, as park rules ask for all wildlife.