Angler reels in 3-foot creature — and rediscovers ‘rare’ species not seen in 84 years

The fisherman baited his line with shrimp, then cast it into a deep pool connected to a river in Sri Lanka.

Eventually, he reeled in a nearly 3-foot long eel.

In May 2021, a photo of the fisherman’s catch was sent to Tharindu Ranasinghe — a researcher with the Wild Island Foundation — for identification, according to a study published Feb. 23 in the journal Zootaxa.

Researchers used DNA samples from the eel to identify it. That’s when they realized the catch was much more “rare” than just an eel.

The creature was actually an “elusive” Gymnothorax polyuranodon — a species not seen in Sri Lanka since 1937.

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Gymnothorax polyuranodon “is the only known freshwater moray in the world,” Hiranya Sudasinghe, one of the study’s co-authors, told McClatchy News in a March 1 email.

The eels have been recorded from Indonesia to Fiji, and they have also been known to inhabit the wet tropics of Australia, scientists said. All recorded sightings of the species are associated with “rainforest habitats.”

“This species is more common in the Pacific from Indonesia to Australia. However, in Sri Lanka, it is a very rare species,” Sudasinghe said in his email. “We think the reason for its rarity in Sri Lanka is because Sri Lanka is in the extreme range of the species distribution.”

A photo gives a close-up view of the creature’s head.

There are only three recorded encounters with Gymnothorax polyuranodon from Sri Lanka, experts said.

Scientists first recorded the species from Sri Lanka in 1937 based on a specimen caught with a hook and line in 1936 and a specimen captured in 1937, according to the study.

The most recent captured eel was caught in a pool on the Gin River in Wakwella, which is in southwestern Sri Lanka.

The study was co-authored by Hiranya Sudasinghe, Tharindu Ranasinghe and Lukas Rüber.

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