A slippery customer was spotted making their way down a St Aubin street following heavy rains, prompting a double-take from passers-by.

While Crush, the turtle injured during Storm Goretti last month, may have received Very Important Reptile status in being airlifted to the UK for convalescence earlier this week, the rescue mission for this European eel was a bit more understated.

The eel didn’t acquire a name during the episode, although Express is proposing Crocquet, since it was slithering down Rue du Crocquet when spotted, and it fits neatly with Crush.

“I know it’s rained a lot… but blimey!” stated Dave Wood on the Jersey Wildlife Facebook page as he posted a video of the scene.

A rather uneventful opening sequence shows water running down the gutter, but then Crocquet enters stage right and the eel, looking to be about two feet long if stretched to full length, makes its way towards a drain.

With several islanders expressing concern for the eel’s safety, and the holes in the drain too small for it to fit through, Mr Wood was able to reassure them.

After a quick conference, a tray had been borrowed from the St Aubin Sports Bar next door, enabling Crocquet to be picked up and taken to St Aubin Harbour, where it was able to swim away unscathed.

It is understood that the eel may have been washed out from one of the streams above the village during the heavy rains earlier this week.

Data from Jersey Met showed that by this morning the island had recorded 79.9 millimetres of rain over the first 11 days of this month, already just past the average February figure for the past 30 years of 78.4mm, including more than 20mm in the 24 hours to 9am.

Although sometimes erroneously dubbed a “freshwater” creature, the European eel is catadromous, meaning they are born in the ocean, migrate to freshwater to grow for up to 20 years, and return to the sea to spawn.

Wildlife expert Romano da Costa, an admin on the Facebook page – which has 11,700 members – said it was most likely that the eel would head across the Atlantic in order to spawn in the Sargasso Sea, which lies between the Caribbean and the North American mainland.

Those who like a truly happy ending may wish to tune out at this point, as the life-cycle of the European eel means that once it has reached its breeding ground, and spawns, it then dies. Hopefully with, in Crocquet’s case, happy memories of the kind people of St Aubin.

Picture/video credit: Dave Wood, Jersey Wildlife Facebook