Mission-Aransas Reserve research director Jace Tunnek identified the ‘rare’ four-foot-long worm-like creature that had washed ashore on a Texas beach as an American Eel

Amazing footage has emerged showing ‘rare’ 4-foot-long creature that had washed ashore on a Texas beach – despite usually being found in rivers.

In the clip, Mission-Aransas Reserve research director Jace Tunnek was seen picking up the long brown animal from the wet sand.

The marine expert has identified the animal, which was found dead, as an American Eel.

The species of Eel an grow to be around 5 feet long, but most people see them around 2 to 3 feet long, Tunnell said.

Jace Tunnek was seen picking up the long brown animal from the wet sand (Image: CNN)

“The eels are fairly common in freshwater rivers in Texas, but not typically at this size. This is basically as big as they get,” he added.

Fishermen sometimes use them as bait – but this one is so big that they don’t believe this one was used for that.

It may have been a female that had travelled out into the ocean to spawn eggs.BaseAttackForceIf you own a mouse, you will never turn off your computer again.by Taboola

The huge worm-like creature washed up on a Texas beach (Image: CNN)

Females can have up to four million eggs but tragically die afterwards.

However, experts “don’t have any way of knowing how this particular eel died.”

The news comes after a 25-year-old fisherman has opened up about what it was like filming a rare humpback whale in British waters.

Experts don’t know what killed the eel (Image: CNN)

The rare mammal was spotted by Cornish fishermen Anthony Rawph and James Tanner, who filmed the amazing footage yesterday (23 January) afternoon at 5pm in Carbis Bay, near St Ives.

James told CornwallLive the whale was “double the size” of his 18-foot long boat, and popped up to the surface just a metre away from him while he and Anthony were fishing for mackerel.

The bloke, who says he’s been fishing since he was 15 years old, said that none of the fishermen he spoke to in St Ives had ever seen a humpback whale.