A holidaymaker got a surprise while paddling in the sea at a popular Devon beach this weekend when an eel splashed about just a few feet away from her.
Kayley Raymond, 46, was camping in Woolacombe with her family and visited Saunton Sands on Saturday. She spotted the unusual animal during a lunchtime trip to the beach with her 10-year-old daughter, Harriet. The pair were barely two feet deep in the water when the eel wriggled past where Kayley stood.
Kayley, from North Dorset, initially thought she was looking at a fish, as she said she was surrounded by a school of sea bass. But when she realised something was different, she quickly left the water and did not return that afternoon.
She said: "I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought, 'What on earth is that?', and I quickly departed from the water and went back to the shore.
"We were surrounded by a school of sea bass so I thought it was one of them. It was only when my husband was looking back at the video later that we were able to identify it as a conger eel.
"It was a bit of a surprise. I was only about two feet deep in the water, it was below my knees. The surf school guys on the beach said it was incredibly unusual for an eel to be that shallow.
"There were so many sea bass though, so it was hunting them. Just before I got out I saw one of the sea bass manage to swim away. It was very cool to see – but we didn't go back in the water for the rest of the day!"
Conger eels, which can grow up to 10ft long, are not unusual in the waters of the south-west, although they are typically found much deeper. In 2015, a Plymouth fisherman caught a 7ft long conger eel and sold it for £40, the BBC reported.
Mum Startled by Eel in Shallows at Devon Beach