Giant eel Attacks trout farm

Gary Wales from Tommy Finn's Trout Farm near the south-eastern city of Melbourne said the long finned eel (Similar to the one in the picture to the left) turned up earlier this month and had eluded all attempts at capture so far.

Visitors who have seen the creature said it was about four metres long with a head the size of a football. Experts said it was probably a long-finned eel, which is common along Australia's east coast but normally grows to a maximum length of about two metres, though bigger specimens have been found.

Wales said it's the biggest eel he's ever seen and he's hoping to catch it alive.

"Maybe it's Nessie, Nessie's offspring maybe, who knows, but no, it's a big eel," Wales said on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"We don't want it harmed, this thing's probably 30-years-old, and he's come here probably by mistake and he's found himself a good little home and plenty of food," Wales said.

Stories of the Loch Ness monster, so enthusiastically promoted by the Scottish tourist industry, date back to the seventh century, when a water beast is said to have appeared before Saint Columba, the founder of Christianity in Scotland.

"We hope to catch him alive and take him to the Melbourne Aquarium."

Melbourne Aquarium curator Nick Kirby said the eel may have been living for up to 35 years in a pond upstream from the trout farm and been washed out during record storms and flooding earlier this month.

"The latest information I have is that they can get up to 100 kilograms in land-locked areas and grow three metres in length," Kirby said.

Giant eel strikes again! 7/7/2005