Rare, 4-foot sea creature washes up on Texas coast

(CNN) — A marine researcher recently found a ‘rare’, 4-foot-long American Eel washed up in Texas while surveying a beach.

“This is basically as big as they get,” said Jace Tunnek, Mission-Aransas Reserve research director.

According to Tunnek, usually they’re a lot smaller, used for fishing bait. This one is too big for that.

American eels live mostly in freshwater but go far out into ocean to spawn their eggs.

Females die after spawning offshore, but can have up to four million eggs.