Giant moray

Photo: Marie-Aurélia Sabatte · CC BY-NC

A resident giant moray at the 16 m cleaning station has been present for at least 8 years and is the most reliably observed individual animal on Kendwa Reef, extending from its crevice with mouth agape while cleaner wrasse move inside the gill chambers and between the teeth. Giant morays have a symbiotic hunting relationship with coral groupers, which signal moray partners with a head-shake gesture to cooperate in chasing prey from crevices that neither species can access alone — one of the few documented inter-species cooperative hunts on a coral reef.