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SHARKS, RAYS & EELS
 Nurse shark(Ginglymostoma cirratum) Harmless - only bite if provoked / prodded. Nurse sharks are a common inshore bottom-dwelling shark and eat crustaceans. They can reach up to 14 feet and 700 lbs and are brownish in color. |  Caribbean Reef Shark(Carcharhinus perezii) Generally harmless.The most common shark other than the nurse shark. Only 4 reported non-fatal attacks in last 20 years. Will be interested if you are spearfishing. www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/species3.htm |  Lemon Shark(Negaprion brevirostris) Harmless - usually bolt. Lemon sharks can grow to 10 feet in length and sometimes can look similar to the Caribbean reef shark. They are often found in shallow subtropical waters and are known to inhabit and return to specific nursery sites for breeding. Often feeding at night, these sharks use electroreceptors to find their main source of prey, fish. Photo © Florent Charpin |
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 Southern Stingray(Dasyatis american) Harmless unless stepped on. Very common in the USVIs. It has a flat, diamond-shaped disc, with a mud brown, olive, and grey dorsal surface and white underbelly (ventral surface). The barb on its tail is serrated and covered in a venomous mucous, used for self-defense. Careful when entering and exiting the water -shuffle your feet to avoid stepping on a sleepy ray. If accidental barb penetration seek immediate medical attention. |  Spotted Eagle Ray(Aetobatus narinari) Harmless - usually bolts. This ray can be identified by its dark dorsal surface covered in white spots or rings. Near the base of the ray's relatively long tail, just behind the pelvic fins, are several venomous, barbed stingers. Spotted eagle rays commonly feed on small fish and crustaceans, and will sometimes dig with their snouts to look for food buried in the sand of the sea bed. These rays are commonly observed leaping out of the water. |  Giant Manta Ray(Manta birostris) Harmless. Plankton eaters manta rays lack a barb. The larger species, M. birostris, reaches 23ft in width while the smaller, M. alfredi, reaches 18ft. Both species are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Anthropogenic threats include pollution, entanglement in fishing nets, and direct harvesting for their gill rakers for use in Chinese medicine. Their slow reproductive rate exacerbates these threats. |
 Green Moray(Gymnothorax funebris) Harmless unless provoked. Green morays are sedentary predators with strong teeth. Rather than hunting for food, they wait until food comes to them. The green moray is actually brown! The yellow tint of the mucus that covers its body, in combination with the drab background color, gives the fish its namesake green color. Photo © Florent Charpin |  Spotted Moray Eel(Gymnothorax mooring) Harmless unless provoked. Spotted morays are solitary animals, and are usually seen in holes, with only the head protruding. They are active during the day, feeding at the sea bottom on crustaceans and other fish. Their bite can be dangerous to humans. Recent specimens have been found up to 7 feet long although most of the Caribbean ones are less than 3 feet. |  Chain Moray Eel(Echidna catenata) Harmless crustacean eater that lacks the shark spiky teeth like some eels. Yellow with black and typically seen in the evening/night but occasionally during the day in coral heads. |
 Purple Mouth Moray Eel(Gymnothorax vicinus) Harmless unless provoked. These animals are wrongly considered violent towards humans; they will only attack if they feel threatened as a self defense method. They have one set of teeth but two with one on its main jaw and the other located on the pharyngeal jaws. The Purple Mouth Moray grows to lengths of about 1 to 3 feet. |  Goldentail Moray EelHarmless unless provoked. The goldentail morays serpentine in shape body has a brown light or dark background color dotted with small yellow spots. These later are smaller on the head and larger at the tail. The snout and the tail are yellowish. The inside of their mouth is white. A medium-sized eel that can reach a maximum length of 70 cm, but the ones usually observed are rather average 40 cm in length. |  Sharp Tail Snake Eel(Myrichthys breviceps) Harmless - Also known as Snake Eels and Sharptail Snake Eel. Found singly over seagrass areas and rocky rubble reefs, usually hiding during the day but occasionally emerges to feed both day and night. They feed on fish and invertebrates and their sharp nose allows them to bury in the sand. |
 False Moray / Spaghetti Eel(Need definite species scientific ID) Rare - harmless. Like the spaghetti eels, very little information on the false moray eels is available online. In fact, I think even less is known about them. Taking into account the fact that the bicolored false moray is known to live in the Mediterranean, and that this species, along with a few others, is also known from Florida and the Caribbean, it's really perplexing to find out that there's a great lack of information about false moray eels. |  Brown Garden Eel(Heteroconger longissimus) Harmless - Found on sandy bottom, living in colonies. Feed on plankton and detritus). They retreat into burrow when frightened. |
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