Truck Launches Thousands of Slime Eels Onto Oregon Highway

It would be hard to say who had the worst Thursday: the truck driver whose rig released masses of slime eels onto U.S. 101 and its motorists, the slime eels themselves, or the crew who came to clean up afterward.

The truck hauling 7500 pounds of fish was just approaching traffic-stopping roadwork when its driver realized he couldn’t slow down in time. As the driver slammed on the brakes, his cargo was ejected, sailing and splatting into oncoming traffic and causing five collisions. One driver was injured. Many were disgusted.

Slime eels are not true eels at all, but jawless, spineless creatures called hagfish. Like so many of Mother Nature’s ugliest children, they’re considered a delicacy. These particular fish were on their way to Korea.

In the wild, hagfish live impressively disgusting lives, slithering into the bodies of dead and decaying sea creatures—they especially like entering through anuses—and eating their way out.

Each hagfish can secrete buckets of a super-slick slime when stressed. And boy, were these hagfish stressed. By the time the authorities arrived, it was far too late to wrangle them safely back into their container. The only thing left to do was scrape them up.

[h/t Alaska Dispatch News]