A moray eel poking his head out from his rocky lair & smiling for me (well, it looks like a smile to me). Taken at the Newport Aquarium on the Oregon coast. These eels can reach a length of 13 feet. Some interesting facts about moray eels from Wikipedia: "Reef-associated roving coralgroupers (Plectropomus pessuliferus) have been observed to recruit morays to join them in hunting for food. The invitation to hunt is initiated by head-shaking. The rationale for this joining of forces is the ability of morays to enter narrow crevices and flush prey from niches not accessible to groupers. This is the only known instance of interspecies cooperative hunting among fish. Cooperation on other levels, such as at cleaning stations, is well-known. Morays are frequently thought of as particularly vicious or ill-tempered animals. In truth, morays hide from humans in crevices and would rather flee than fight. They are shy and secretive, and attack humans only in self defense or mistaken identity. Most attacks stem from disruption of a moray's burrow (to which they do react strongly), but an increasing number also occur during hand feeding of morays by divers, an activity often used by dive companies to attract tourists. Morays have poor vision and rely mostly on their acute sense of smell, making distinguishing between fingers and held food difficult; numerous divers have lost fingers while attempting hand feedings, so the hand feeding of moray eels has been banned in some locations, including the Great Barrier Reef. The moray's rear-hooked teeth and primitive but strong bite mechanism also makes bites on humans more severe, as the eel cannot release its grip, even in death, and must be manually prised off. While the majority are not believed to be venomous, circumstantial evidence suggests a few species may be. Eels that have eaten certain types of toxic algae, or more frequently that have eaten fish that have eaten some of these algae, can cause ciguatera fish poisoning if eaten. Ciguatera fish poisoning is very dangerous and can kill." Please zoom.