Mega Moray

How I found this guy is kind of a funny story: my dive buddy disappeared, and it was the day before a box jelly bloom was supposed to happen. I started getting worried about him after I couldn't find him for ten minutes. Suddenly I could see a large, dark shape that was his size down at the bottom (about thirty feet down or so). Fearing the worst, I dove down as fast as I could. As soon as I cleared the layer of murk and got close enough I saw huge gleaming white teeth. That was when I realized that it wasn't my dive buddy I had seen, but this guy: a whitemouth moray eel that was as large as a person! He was just sitting out in the open. The eel freaked out when he saw me and squirmed into a nearby rock and glared at me. I took a minute or so to take pictures of him.

Photo taken at Hanauma Bay, Oahu.
Copyright by me.