Check out this EEL I caught in the Gulf of Mexico!

Ocean’s Piece

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So this is gonna sound crazy but bare with me. I went on a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico this past weekend and accidentally caught an eel off an oil rig. He was in about 600 ft of water about a quarter of a mile from the continental shelf. He was about 4 or 5 ft long and the picture below is only the top part of him. I tried to ID this guy myself but I haven’t found anything that has resembled it. If anybody has a clue of what the name of this eel is, please tell me, but feel free to comment as well. If any of y’all have had an experience like this, please share. For those wondering, I did let it go because I didn’t want to risk being injured from it and I personally don’t know how to make sushi.
CCEDF07C-F476-4B0C-9746-55DCA93DD4BA.jpeg

(I created another thread like this earlier but the title wasn’t that good so I did another one.)
 

zalick

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What a catch! I think it’s an American Conger eel. They are aggressive!

Edit: yup king snake eel
 
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Ocean’s Piece

Ocean’s Piece

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What a catch! I think it’s an American Conger eel. They are aggressive!
It’s a King Snake eel. Just checked both and the king snake looks most like it. It was banded like the king snake and has pretty much all the features of it. Scary looking things for sure. I wonder if it would be reef safe or not even though I would have never in my wildest dreams out that in my tank
 
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Ocean’s Piece

Ocean’s Piece

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Did you take him off the hook or just cut the line?
Also, He was twisted around the line so many times that it would be difficult to get it undone without touching him. We didn’t know what he was or if he was venomous or shocks or what
 

tehmadreefer

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Wait! There are eels in the ocean??


Catch morays and sharks and other toothy critters anywhere there are rocks on the beach such as at the house of refuge in Stuart, Florida.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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