‘Slime eels’ transform Oregon road into highway of nightmares

[Mundy]

A truck overturned and its container with eels hit this vehicle on Highway 101 in Depoe Bay, Ore., Thursday, July 13, 2017.Oregon State Police via AP

Whatever you call them – slime eels, hagfish, nightmare fuel – an Oregon highway was drenched with 3,400 kilograms of the sea creatures after a five-vehicle collision Thursday.

Hagfish secrete sticky ooze when they’re attacked, startled or, apparently, catapulted from a truck into oncoming traffic.

The 3.4 tons of cargo was ultimately bound for South Korea, where the fish are a delicacy, the Oregonian reported. One person was injured in the accident on Highway 101 on the central Oregon coast.

According to a local affiliate, the truck driver slammed on his brakes while approaching a construction zone, and gravity took over, with one container striking a car in the opposite lane. “It was a mess, approximately 150 to 200 yards of roadway blocked with fish and cars,” said Senior Trooper Brian Tucker of the Oregon State Police.

The accident closed the traffic lane for hours. The driving of the truck driver is being investigated in connection with the case, a police spokeswoman told the Oregonian.

Video and photos posted by first-responders evoke a scene straight out of a horror movie: mashed up cars covered in slime, slithering hagfish desperately searching for water and roadside ditches brimming with carcasses. One video shows a small bulldozer steaming through a dense pile of fish to clear the roadway.

Despite being nicknamed “slime eel” and their eel-like shape, hagfish belong to a family of jawless fish called Agnatha. Sensor tentacles around their faces help them find food, which they attack face-first by boring a tunnel into the bodies of prey, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Hagfish are sought by Pacific Northwest fishermen for export to South Korea, where overfishing has depleted stocks.

But it’s their penchant for sliming that makes the hagfish stand out in an ocean full of strange creatures. The mechanism is used to freak out predators and coat their jaws in a sticky, transparent cloud that allows the hagfish to escape. And, thanks to a lack of vertebrae, a hagfish can tie itself in a knot to avoid slime from coating its own face.

It is too early to tell how fans of the fish might use the tale of the slimed highway to mark Hagfish Day, which falls on Oct. 18 this year.

‘Slime eels’ transform Oregon road into highway of nightmares

Washington Post  07.14.2017

韓수출용 먹장어 3천㎏ 美고속도로 사고로 길바닥 쏟아져

연합뉴스 입력 : 2017.07.15 00:53 수정 : 2017.07.15 00:53

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韓수출용 먹장어 3천㎏ 美고속도로 사고로 길바닥 쏟아져 (로스앤젤레스=연합뉴스) 옥철 특파원 = 미국 오리건 주에서 고속도로 사고로 한국에 수출할 7천500파운드(약 3천400㎏) 상당의 먹장어(일명 꼼장어)가 길바닥에 쏟아졌다. 오리건 주 경찰과

韓수출용 먹장어 3천㎏ 美고속도로 사고로 길바닥 쏟아져

(로스앤젤레스=연합뉴스) 옥철 특파원 = 미국 오리건 주에서 고속도로 사고로 한국에 수출할 7천500파운드(약 3천400㎏) 상당의 먹장어(일명 꼼장어)가 길바닥에 쏟아졌다.

오리건 주 경찰과 디포베이 소방국은 14일(현지시간) 101번 고속도로에서 기이한 사고가 발생했다고 전했다.

먹장어를 싣고 가던 트럭이 도로 보수공사 현장을 미처 보지 못한 탓에 컨테이너 하나가 전복돼 먹장어 수천 마리가 쏟아진 것이다.

사고로 다친 사람은 없었지만 점액질 먹장어가 쏟아져 도로 통행이 한동안 중단됐다.

소방당국은 이 먹장어가 한국에 식용으로 수출될 예정이었다고 말했다.

oakchul@yna.co.kr