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Enchelynassa canina
Large (~ 1.5 m long) dark gray-pinkish moray eel resting on rock shelf with blue cleaner wrasse in its mouth.
Near shore tropical waters; coral reef ecosystem.
Spotted offshore of Leeward Oahu; location shown is notional. Date notional; year is probable. Free-swimming eels are unusual in daylight. The shadow above the eel's head was caused by a rock outcrop, not in the picture, which got in the way of the flash. Original medium color slide, taken with Nikonos III using flash; film subsequently scanned and image saved as a digital file.
Not noted in the initial post of this spotting is that this eel was at a “cleaning station.” The small blue fish which is barely visible in the eel’s open mouth is a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides phthirophagus), perhaps a juvenile.
Sargon, I agree; this is a tough call, but I think you made the right call. All the online pictures and description that I checked seem to fit the Viper Moray better than the other possibilities. I’ve edited the spotting accordingly. Thanks for researching it.
Another tough one, but looking at jaw shape I would guess Viper Moray Eel. Maybe you can identify from the reference above.
Spotted on Nov 1, 1981
Submitted on Jun 3, 2013
