We were in Bonaire in March and noticed lots of eels on the reefs. We didn't spot any green morays, but just about every other species prolific in that part of the Caribbean. I had this photo in our collection and thought it was something "new." It turns out it is a spotted moray and that the undercolor can range from white to yellow. "Reef Fish Identification" by Paul Humann is a wonderful resource! The newest Undercurrent publication had an article about Omar's effect on the eels in Bonaire and that it actually helped them out by eliminating an environmental danger that affected them. Nature does seem to take care of itself on occasion!




(Message edited by Colleen__dan on April 14, 2009)

I love eels!

Bubba loves eels too! Don'tcha Bubba?

Smack, you gonna make Bubba go run and hide by saying this. I can hear him screaming through his reg now!

Colleen and Dan, I was there in January, saw a few, but certainly not the usual amount. Glad to hear they are repopulating. There is an extensive report here done by the CIEE (sp) a research org on Bonaire that had identified the virus that was killing the eels (the virus only affects eels). It was very interesting. It does seem that Omar swept the virus out of the waters

hehehehe!

Great photo. Thanks for sharing

Remember the old addage:

"Don't Fool With Mother Nature"

She can correct about any of our insults and will in due time, with our without us!

Tink,

Please post a link to the 'report here' that you mentioned above. I did a keyword search and didn't see a reference to a report.

we were worried we wouldn't see any eels but in general we've seen eels on every dive. mostly goldentails, spotted, and chain morays but also a lot of sharptailed. we just saw a large green moray today at 1000 steps...that makes about 6 for the trip so i would say those have been affected more than the others. we've even seen purplemouth and chestnut morays. i think the only one we haven't seen so far is the goldspotted...but i think we've only seen one of those in the past anyway.

Glen
I think this may be the article Tink is talking about.
http://www.cieebonaire.org/downloads/Physis%20Vol%204.pdf
Mick

TKS, Mickey. Looks right!

Thanks Mickey