Green Moray in Cozumel

The largest moray on the reef — a thick uniform green-brown body with no pattern. The green is actually a yellow mucus layer over blue-grey skin.

Quick ID

Where You Will See It In Cozumel

Green Moray is tagged on reef profiles right along the west coast, across a depth band of roughly 9 to 98 feet.

Without a boat. It turns up at Playa Corona and Chankanaab Shallow — all shore entries, so you dive them on your own schedule.

On an ordinary beginner boat dive. It is recorded at Punta Dalila, Yellow House, Casa Blanca, Chankanaab Bolones and La Francesa. No advanced certification needed.

Deeper, and on the walls. It also shows up on Barracuda Reef, C-53 Wreck, Cantarel (Eagle Ray Wall) and Palancar Bricks.

Conditions change the odds more than the site does — the current, the time of day and how much the group has already stirred up the sand. Ask your guide what they have been seeing that week.

Behaviour

The constant open-mouth gaping is respiration, not threat — morays pump water over their gills that way. They hunt at night by scent and are effectively blind to a still diver.

Commonly Confused With

• Spotted moray — Spotted morays are pale with dense dark speckling.
• A large grouper in a hole — The eel has no pectoral fins and a continuous fin running down the back.

Diving Etiquette And Safety

Never put a hand into a crevice. Do not feed — most moray bites on divers follow hand-feeding, because the eel locates food by scent and cannot tell the finger from the fish.

Part of the Cozumel marine life guide · see Cozumel dive sites · plan your Cozumel dive trip