The eel-like creature with teeth found at Kulim Park last week is most likely a snake eel, says Russ Hawkins at Fat Boy Charters.

Murray Milgrew stepped on it while towing Sandy Fenton's six-year-old son Levi Roper on his boogie board through knee deep water at Kulim Park.

He scooped it up with the boogie board and took it ashore to examine.

"Neither of us go fishing and we were curious. It was soft with no eyes, not even holes or indents where the eyes once were. It had quite a few snails on it. It had a spikey fin on top."

Snake eels live in the sand with just the nose sticking out ready to ambush their prey, and are seen quite often on the scallop beds at Motiti Island, says Russ. They can grow to about two metres in length.

They are caught occasionally. In July 2014 the Northern Advocate reported one that was washed up on the beach with storm debris.

According to Malcolm Francis' Coastal Fishes of New Zealand, the snake eel grows to 2.5m and lives in sandy or muddy bottoms to 300m deep. It uses its bony tail to dig a hole in the sand, and live as ambush predators.

Stuff reported the catch of another snake eel at Port Charles, Coromandel in November 2015.

Marco Salewsky, 14, caught it off the end of the wharf.

Marco was fishing with a rod and line, using a live bait when he says the creature turned up on the end of his line and gave him "quite a fright"

"When it was coming up I thought it was a [regular] eel, then I seen it's teeth come out."

He thinks it spotted his bait and pounced out of its usual hiding burrow in the sand.

Marco said he goes fishing often and neither he nor other fishermen he'd talked to in the area had seen anything like it before.

"It's definitely the oddest thing I've seen come out of the ocean."

He got it on to the wharf, where it entangled itself with the line and died.

Snake eels are found in warmer water in the north-eastern Atlantic, northern New Zealand, Japan and the Mediterranean, says Niwa fisheries scientist Peter McMillan.

They are rarely seen by humans because they burrow into the sand with just their heads poking out until they pounce on passing fish to eat, says Peter.

"It can probably see you before you see it."

Snake eels or serpent eels have a very long thin rounded body. At about 1.5m long the body diameter is bout 50mm.

The snake eels are distinguishable from other eels by a long, pointed snout and pectoral fins. The mouth is very large, extending back well beyond the level of the eye. A single row of sharp, prominent teeth are present on the jaws and roof of the mouth. The upper teeth are said to be particularly sharp and the snake eel can inflict severe wounds if handled without care.

The tip of the tail forms a hard rigid point. There are no scales. Their average size in New Zealand is 1.5m but they can reach up to 3m in length. They are coloured olive grey above and silvery below. Snake eels are usually seen during the day, crawling over the bottom like a snake.

Nothing is known of their diet or feeding behaviour.