While surveying a beach, a marine researcher found a 'rare,' 4-foot-long American eel washed up in Texas, CNN reported. The video of the lifeless marine creature was shared on Facebook by the official page of Mission-Aransas Reserve. Jace Tunnell, director of the Mission-Aransas Reserve, who spotted the eel in the sand called the find “rare”.
In the video, he showed off the massive 4-foot-long American eel to viewers and explained more about the sea creature. "But this thing is massive. It's got to be like 4-foot-long," he said. This particular eel is also likely a female, Mr Tunnell said in the video. "They're larger than the males," he said. "Females can have up to 4 million eggs."
American eels are typically a lot smaller and commonly used for fishing bait, Mr Tunnell said, adding "Obviously, this one's too big for that."
Watch the video here:
The post was captioned as, ''Have you ever seen an American Eel up close, or read about their wild life cycle of living in freshwater and then going way out into the ocean to spawn 4 million eggs right before dying? Listen to this episode of #beachcombing with Jace Tunnell to learn more about this amazing fish.''
According to US. Fish and Wildlife Services, American eels live mostly in freshwater, usually estuaries and rivers, but go far out into the ocean to spawn their eggs before dying.
The internet was left stumped and amazed by the rare creature, while some were creeped out.
Reacting to the video, one user wrote, ''What a truly great find! Very informative narrator too!!'' Another commented, ''First time to see one up close. Really interesting. Thank you again for educating us.'' A third added, ''Oh my goodness! It's so big!'' Yet another said, ''Nightmare time.''
