About a year and a half ago, the eel population on Bonaire's reefs was decimated by disease. Last year, we didn't see eels as often as we expected, and when we did, they were pretty small.
This year, I am happy to report that the eel population seems to have rebounded.
Today, I saw my first green moray of the season (bottom photo). It was 5 or 6 feet long, and resting under a reef structure at about 65 feet. This is the biggest moray that occurs here.
The purplemouth moray (one photo up from the bottom) is an individual that we see resting in the same place regularly. The eel is about 3 feet long, and we see it in about 8 feet of water.
The spotted moray (one photo down from top) was resting in the same patch reef as the purplemouth moray. Both species take advantage of cleaning fish and cleaning shrimp while in this reef. The eel was about 3 feet long.
And finally, the top photo is a goldentail moray. At 1.5 feet long, this is the smallest of this batch of eels. Goldentail eels forage during the day, while the others forage primarily at night.
Great post.
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