Watch your step: Strange creature spotted burrowing on Texas beach, photos show
_fitted.png "A photo shared by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows a shrimp eel partially exposed from its burrow on a Galveston beach.")
While we like to imagine the eeriest sea creatures stay confined to the darkest depths of the ocean, some are much closer than you think — maybe right underfoot.
Photos shared by Texas wildlife officials Wednesday show just such an animal in Galveston; an eel as comfortable flitting through water as it is sifting through sand on the beach, hunting at the margin of our domain.
“I will no longer volunteer to be buried in the sand,” one person commented on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Facebook post.
“Heart attack waiting to happen if I saw that crawling out of the earth!” said another.
And this: “Eeeee!! I’ve never seen one and would probably scream and run if I ever do.”
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Many expressed similar feelings about the shrimp eel, though, unlike some of its more famous and well-researched cousins, the shrimp eel poses no real danger to humans, McClatchy News reported.
They’re toothy, possessing multiple rows on the top and bottom of its jaw, and their ropy bodies grow up to 3 feet long, according to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
But they aren’t lying in wait at the beach to bite your toes, as one social media user suggested. Shrimp eels prefer to feast on crustaceans and other saltwater prey.
Besides shrimp and crab, known staples of the eel’s diet include fish, octopus and squid, according to the Smithsonian.
Shrimp eels reside in gulfs and bays, TPWD said, preferring muddy and sandy waters. They dig a hole long enough to conceal their body and pop out when potential food skitters near. If the tables are turned and a bigger fish swallows a shrimp eel, they sometimes “try and burrow their way out of the predator’s stomach.”
Harmless to people or not, the idea of sharing the beach with an eel doesn’t sit well with everyone.
“Just one more reason why I belong in the mountains,” a Facebook user wrote.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Watch your step: Strange creature spotted burrowing on Texas beach, photos show."