‘Massive’ American Eel Found Washed Up on Texas Coast – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

A Texas marine researcher discovered an enormous shock throughout a seashore survey final week on Mustang Island.

Jace Tunnell, reserve director on the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, (*5*) of an American eel he discovered whereas counting birds and in search of stranded sea turtles.

“This is basically as big as they get,” Tunnell exclaimed in his video. “This thing is massive, it’s got to be like four feet long.”

During this most up-to-date journey, Tunnell stated he discovered the eel close to the excessive tide line early within the morning and that due to its measurement, he thought the fish was a feminine. He added that females usually die after spawning offshore the place they will lay as much as 4 million eggs at one time.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said American eels are freshwater fish that primarily stay in rivers and estuaries however migrate to the ocean to spawn. While the females can develop as much as 4 toes in size, the males are typically a lot smaller at 1 and a half toes.

Tunnell stated the smaller eels are sometimes utilized by anglers as bait. This one, he famous, was far too huge for that.

Tunnell stated it isn’t frequent to see them washed up on the Texas coast and that the eel was solely the second he is discovered within the final 5 years. The different, he stated, wasn’t fairly as giant.

He added that the species’ life cycle has been affected by dams blocking entry to rivers and estuaries the place they stay when not spawning. Tunnell stated there are some inventive concepts on the market on how dams could possibly be modified to permit the migration of eels and different species that transfer between rivers and oceans.

“Thinking about how we can bring those types of ideas to reality would be a great initiative for protecting species such as this,” Tunnell stated.

Tunnell conducts weekly seashore surveys alongside Mustang Island and stated he usually posts attention-grabbing finds on his YouTube and Facebook pages. On current surveys, Tunnell shared movies after discovering a deceased roseate spoonbill, some cool sea shells and an octopus. He even rescued a small hammerhead shark.