PORT ARANSAS, Texas — You never know what you will find when walking on a South Texas beach!
A giant starfish, known as a gray sea star, was spotted recently crawling around a Port Aransas beach and viewer Christine shared a video with our sister station, KHOU 11.
"So, bigger in Texas is no myth, people," one Facebook user wrote after seeing the video of the giant creature.
The gray sea star was using the little tubes on its feet to crawl along the sand, which is pretty common on the Texas coast.
Sea stars only live in saltwater and usually prefer to stay about 130 feet below the water's surface on a soft sandy bottom, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. The gray sea star can grow up to 12 inches long and they also have the ability to regenerate an arm if they lose it.
Unusual finds on South Texas beaches
Like we said before, there is no telling what you will find while on the beach.
The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve has a social media series called #beachcombing, where they find some really awesome, and sometimes really weird things on the beach.
One of the most talked about finds is the "creepy dolls," which even got the attention of Last Week Tonight host John Oliver.
The Reserve also recently cam across a Cuban migrant boat on Padre Island, and a prosthetic leg.
"We actually have 10 times the amount of trash that washes up here that has to do with the loop current that goes around Mexico and up the east coast of Florida," said Mission-Aransas Reserve Director Jace Tunnell in a previous interview. "And anything in that current gets pushed up on the Texas coast."
That week's finds also included a googly-eyed spiky ball, a witchy glass bottle filled with leaves, a headless scuba diver figurine and a mysterious steel ball.
Other animals you can find on the beach include rattlesnakes and even coyotes.
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