A truck crash set 7,500 pounds of slime eels loose on an Oregon highway, covering it in goo

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July 14, 2017 10:51 PM

A truck carrying 7,500 pounds of hagfish — or slime eels — tipped over while trying to make a stop.

Cleanup crews probably felt like Bill Murray did here.

If you thought your commute was bad Thursday, it probably wasn't as bad as what people dealt with while driving along a coastal highway in Depoe Bay, Oregon.

A truck carrying 7,500 pounds of hagfish — or slime eels — tipped over while trying to make a stop, tossing containers of

Depoe Bay Fire District announced around 1:50pm PST that Highway 101 "just got slimed" on Twitter. The pictures really speak for themselves.

These slimy creatures are "hagfish", or "slime eels", which produce slime to protect themselves when stressed. They have remained virtually unchanged as a species for the last 300 million years.

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Oregon State Police asked the question we're all wondering.

You should toss your clothes out if they've been exposed, wrote Dr. Andrew Thaler, a deep-sea ecologist and population geneticist, on his website.

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As you can see, the hagfish don't mess around when producing slime. A “single hagfish can fill a 5-gallon bucket with slime, seemingly instantly,” wrote Thaler.

Source: New York Times

Hoses and bulldozers had to be brought in to clean up the highway mess.

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The fire department's truck took some slime damage, too.

The lanes were eventually re-opened hours later, but no word on the smell.

This is what the hagfish looks like in its natural habitat.

Here's the Smithsonian Channel telling you everything you don't want to know about the hagfish. Do not watch if you have a weak stomach.

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