Family stumbles onto huge alligator chomping prey at Texas beach. ‘That is a brute’
_fitted.png "A Texas family stumbled onto a massive alligator feasting on prey while at a beach in Sea Rim State Park, video shows.")
It’s a rare thing to encounter an alligator on a beach and rarer still to stumble upon a massive one in the middle of a meal, but a Texas fisherman recently did and captured it on video.
Hunter Ham “grew up fishing and surfing that exact same spot” at Sea Rim State Park and took his three kids with him for a first-time visit March 23, he told McClatchy News.
It was a first for him too when he laid eyes on the huge lizard sprawled out in the sand. He’s well aware there are occasional gator sightings in the area, but he’d never before seen one on the beach — and he estimates this visitor was an impressive 10 feet long.
“You could tell, this was ‘his beach,’ and he was chilling without a care in the world,” he said.
Ham, who catalogs his fishing adventures on his YouTube channel @hamfishing, also shared the video on Instagram and TikTok, where it had racked up over 1.3 million views as of March 26.
In the video, the alligator can be seen chomping down on some prey, a large redfish, according to Ham.
His kids can be heard in the background excitedly cheering “alligator, alligator,” as it wolfs down the fish. “That is a brute,” Ham says.
Some commenters expressed concern for the kids, believing they were too close and that the encounter could have turned tragic if the alligator decided to come after them. Though the gator seemed relaxed and “was just catching some rays,” Ham says he and his family kept a respectful distance all the same.
“To clarify the situation, my wife and 3 kids are safely behind me inside of my truck,” he said. “I’m also close enough to jump in the back if he turned my direction.”
Ham says Texas Parks and Wildlife officials showed up at the beach and he spoke with them.
“There’s some fresh water on the other side of the dunes that he came out from,” he said. “One of the (TPWD) guys told me that they sometimes come over to the beach, briefly, to rid themselves of parasites in the saltwater.”
Ham said “it was a real treat” coming across the gator, and the experience has done nothing to dampen his love for southeast Texas.
“Yes, our beaches are brown and the waves are generally flat, but we’re blessed to live here,” he said.
Sea Rim State Park boasts “5.2 miles of Gulf shoreline and 4,000 acres of marshlands” and is a popular destination for anglers, hunters, birders and kayakers, according to TPWD.
The park is about a 110-mile drive east of Houston.