I saw this large undulated moray eel cruising in shallow water until it disappeared into, what appeared to me to be a tiny crack in the coral. John P. Hoover says of the undulated moray eel, “One of the commonest Indo­-Pacific morays, it is also one of the nastiest; do not attempt to play with it or feed it.” Words to live by.

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.