Estuarine Biology Regional Centre (EBRC) of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has discovered and documented two new species of marine eel in August 2019. These two species have been named ‘Gymnothorax andamanensesis’ and ‘Gymnothorax smithi’.
Gymnothorax andamanensesis
- This is a short brown un-patterned moray eel.
- Two specimens of this eel were caught at 2-metre deep waters in the south Andaman coast by J. Praveenraj .
- Till now, 10 species of short brown unpatterned moray eels have been discovered in the world, out of which two were found in Indian waters.
- With this new discovery, the number of short brown un-patterned moray eels discovered from the Indian coast has increased to three.
Gymnothorax smithi
- This is a new white-spotted moray eel and its first specimen was found from the 200-metres deep waters of the Arabian Sea .
About Marine eels
- These eels are mostly found in shallow waters but some of them live offshore in sandy or clayey bottoms ranging up to 500 metres.
- As per scientists, till now, 49 species of moray eel from 10 genera had been reported from Indian waters, and their species numbers have increased to 50 with the new addition.
