Giant eel
A shrimp cleans a moray eel's mouth, off Tulamben, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali May 14, 2011. Cleaner shrimp is a generic term for any swimming decapod crustacean that cleans other organisms of parasites. This symbiotic relationship benefits the fish by having parasites removed from them, and the shrimp gets its food. Picture taken May 14, 2011. REUTERS/David Loh

A fisherman was able to catch a huge conger eel in the coast of Devon in United Kingdom. The eel was estimated to have weighed 72.5 kilograms and measured approximately 6-7 feet in length by the authorities at the port where it was caught. These numbers were significantly lower than the initial measurement declarations made by the fisherman, which was 21 feet, during its initial capture.

The massive sea creature was accidentally caught by the nets of in the fishing trawler Hope. Photos of the said catch was posted on social media following its capture, before it was sold via an auction. "Sadly it was never measured before it went to auction but the fisherman who caught it estimated it was 'about 10 feet in length,” a spokeswoman for Plymouth Fisheries told Sky News. “Possibly the perspective of the hanging photograph does make it look longer, it looks shorter in other photos and eels stretch out when hung." The eel was sold at $80 per kilogram at the auction.

According to Pete Bormley, who is the manager of Plymouth Fisheries, huge eels usually hide in the wrecks of the South West, or on reefs and rocky parts of the ocean hence, referring to the recent catch as unusual. However, these creatures go to the open ground, particularly in slack water and neap tides, when looking for food.

Congers are one of the largest types of eels, with some of them reaching to 0 feet in length. Although they have immense power and big size, these eels are not known to have strong swimming abilities. The largest conger ever caught was said to have weighed approximately 158 kilograms, and was caught in Iceland’s Westmann’s Island.

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