The ocean is a mystery. We can’t seem to shake this idea that the sea is a writhing, unfathomable mass filled with peculiar creatures never before seen.
So every time some blob washes ashore, we all want it to be shrouded in watery mystery. What is this weird squishy thing on the beach? It must be an unknown creature!
The truth is that almost everything that washes up on beaches is nothing new. A monstrous, fanged sea creature deposited on a Texas beach in the wake of Hurricane Harvey was labeled as a horrifying sea monster. It turns out it was just a fangtooth snake-eel. The Aplatophis chauliodus which translates roughly as “terrible serpent” can grow up to 84cm in length and tend to inhabit waters between 30 and 90 metres deep in the Atlantic. They are usually found tucked away in burrows with only their snouts and eyes exposed, darting out to feed on fish and crustaceans. They do sound a little monstrous, but they are just eels. They might be slimy and toothy but that doesn’t make them monsters. They’re just misunderstood.
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