US highway got 'slimed' after truck carrying eels overturn

Slime covered a highway in Oregon after a truck carrying eels tipped over and spilled the fish on cars and the road. PHOTO: TWITTER/ DEPOE BAY FIRE DIST.

DEPOE BAY, OREGON - A highway in Oregon in the US was covered in slime after a truck carrying 3,400kg of eels tipped over, spilling the fish on cars and large swathes of the road.

No one was injured, but numerous cars were "slimed", while one lane of the motorway was closed for clean-up.

The fire department said the truck was in fact carrying hagfish, a primitive eel-shaped, slime-producing marine fish also known as slime eels. They are usually caught in the west coast of the US and were on their way to Korea, where they are considered a delicacy.

Despite the disruption, Oregon state police took the spillage in their stride, tweeting a picture of a police officer standing in the middle of the mess and an accompanying post that said: "What to tell the #drycleaner?"

In another picture, the state police tweeted: "In this heat...what is this going to start smelling like in the next few days?"

Workers had to use a bulldozer to scrape up the slime, and the highway was reopened a few hours later.

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