Rarer than the Tasmanian Tiger and more mysterious, the Southern Moray has never been seen alive. A single specimen collected in Port Phillip Bay’s Half Moon Bay in 1884 is all we know about it. It wasn’t even noticed as a species among the museum archives until 2001. Where did it go? Did it use to be common? Are they still out there?
📸 The specimen went unnoticed for 150 years because it was presumed it was a Green Moray. It could very well still be out there. Have you seen any Moray Eel in Victoria? Please email me a photo and location to simon@wildiaries.com.
How was the Southern Moray discovered?
In 2001 scientists US scientists [1] were reviewing the taxonomy of moray eels in Australia and New Zealand. On inspecting a specimen collected by Frederick McCoy at Half Moon Bay in 1884 they concluded it was a new species – Southern Moray Gymnothorax austrinus. Not only that, it’s the only one of its kind. No-one has ever reliably recorded one since. Most of us probably don’t even know they exist.
Frederick McCoy
Born in Dublin, Ireland, McCoy, was a Catholic family asnd staunch creationist, despite also being a renowned palaeontologist. He is famous for contributing to the theory that Thylacine were once widespread and diverse carnviores across Australia. But it would be over a hundred years later before his most mysterious discovery would make a reappearance.
What does a Southern Moray look like?
It’s very hard to describe anything from a specimen that was placed into preservative 125 years ago. But the description is given as:
- A large, brown moray with tapering tail;
- Total length 88 cm;
- Head moderate in size; snout short;
- Small eye above midgape;
- Body and fins uniform medium brown;
- Narrow pale margin on fins; snout, dorsal head; and
- Jaw pores dark.
The specimen appears to have been labelled correctly as it was collected by Frederick McCoy (or at least by one of his staff). Either way, the genuine nature of the discovery is backed up by how different it is to all other known species. The authors add:
It is a ripe female with »1 mm eggs. It first appeared to be similar to a large specimen of Gymnothorax prasinus (Green Moray), also taken off Victoria, but it has a much more elongate and tapering body, the anterior head region is noticeably dark, and a narrow pale margin is visible on the fins. In addition, it has much different dentition, the teeth few and highly serrate, and the vertebral count is unusual and can be matched with no known species.
Are they still out there?
It’s hard to imagine a species in northern Port Phillip Bay being present without being found elsewhere. The Southern Moray is, as far as we know, the only Port Phillip Bay endemic fish. It would be surprising to find it doesn’t occur anywhere else. Unless it was once widespread and sea level rise after the last ice-ageA period of reduction in Earth’s temperature of between about 4–7 degrees that resulted in the rapid expansion of ice sheets and glaciation of much of the Earth’s surface. More pushed it into this final dead-end location.
A single record from the Atlas of Living Australia at Flinders Pier in 2018 during Reef Watch, has never been confirmed. While it’s most likely to be Green Moray, a species that occurs in Bass Strait and as far south as Tasmania, who knows?
There is plenty still to discover and no reason why this species isn’t being overlooked somewhere. It’s very unlikely to still occur in Port Phillip Bay. We used to have Grey Nurse Sharks, there are old anecdotes of Elephantfish breeding near Mentone, large hermit crabs have disappeared from Ricketts Point and almost all resident reef fish were speared out in the 1950s. Large predators are almost always the first creatures to disappear.
But if you’re snorkelling on the coast and see a Moray any time, take a photo if you can. You never know, it might just be a Southern Moray.
Reference
- Böhlke, Eugenia & Mccosker, John. (2001). The moray eels of Australia and New Zealand, with the description of two new species (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae). Records of the Australian Museum. 53. 71-102. 10.3853/j.0067-1975.53.2001.1325.
