On November 28, 2000, a single specimen of an unidentified Moray Eel (Gymnothorax sp,) was found in Huntington Beach, California, in the East Sea Gate Lagoon. the fish was in poor condition, and was assumed to discarded from an aquarium (Sharon Shiba, personal communication 2000, USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database 2024). Gymnothorax spp. are widely distributed in and subtropical waters. There is a native California Moray (G. mordax), found from southern California to the Galapagos Islands. This species can be considered cryptogenic.