Green Moray Eel

The Green Moray Eel (Gymnothorax funebris) is a large moray of the family Muraenidae found throughout the western Atlantic, from New Jersey and Bermuda south through the Caribbean to Brazil. Despite its name, the eel's skin is actually blue-grey; its green appearance comes from a protective yellow mucus coating over the skin. It is one of the largest morays in the Atlantic, commonly encountered by divers around reefs, rocky shorelines, and harbors. Like other morays, it lacks pectoral and pelvic fins and scales, relying on a long, muscular, snake-like body to maneuver through crevices. It is not considered threatened and is a frequently observed, ecologically important predator on Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico reefs.

Green Moray Eels have a thick, elongated, snake-like body lacking pectoral and pelvic fins, with a single continuous fin running along the back, around the tail, and along the underside.

Key field marks:

• Uniform olive-green to dark green coloration, caused by a yellow mucus layer over naturally blue-grey skin
• Large size, commonly reaching 1.5-2.5 m, among the largest Atlantic morays
• Blunt, rounded head with small, round gill openings and constantly opening and closing jaws, a normal breathing motion rather than aggression
• Smooth, scaleless skin

It differs from similarly sized morays by its solid, unpatterned green color, lacking the spots, bands, or mottling seen in species like the spotted moray or purplemouth moray found in the same range.

Green Moray Eels inhabit shallow to moderately deep tropical and subtropical waters of the western Atlantic and Caribbean, typically from the surface down to about 30-40 m. They favor coral and rocky reefs, ledges, crevices, harbors, and occasionally brackish river mouths, where they spend daylight hours hidden in holes and caves with only their head visible. Their range extends from the northeastern United States and Bermuda through the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and along the coast of Brazil. They are mostly solitary and territorial around a chosen den, though juveniles may occupy shallower nursery habitats such as seagrass beds before moving to deeper reef structure as adults.

Green Moray Eels are primarily nocturnal hunters, emerging from reef crevices at night to forage for fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods, using a strong sense of smell to locate prey in poor visibility. They possess a second set of jaws in their throat, called pharyngeal jaws, that pull captured prey down into the digestive tract. During the day they remain mostly stationary in dens, occasionally seen hunting cooperatively alongside groupers, a behavior documented in several moray species. They are generally solitary and can be territorial toward other eels near their den. Reproduction involves pelagic larvae called leptocephali that drift in open water for months before settling onto reef habitat as juveniles.