Miomelon eltanini

Miomelon eltanini is a salt-water snail, weighing about 320 grams (0.71 lb) and having a spirally-coiled shell. The shell is green-grey, with males having light-yellow flecks. The snail is moderate to large in length, being about 9 centimetres (3.5 in) long, although some individuals have rarely been recorded at 12 centimetres (4.7 in)

Miomelon eltanini is naturally distributed along the shallow coastlines of southern California and Mexico, where the water is the correct temperature for these snails to breed. If the water temperature is too cold, the male snails become very agitated and will resort to carnivorous feeding. In one instance, several dozen snails were accidentally transported on the underside of a United States container ship heading to Vancouver. After arriving in the cooler Canadian pacific waters, the snails rapidly dominated the marine landscape and, having ample food, multiplied rapidly. Soon they were forming armies that pillaged the seafloor, consuming everything in their path. In order to curb the population, the Vancouver Marine Watch (VMW) implemented a program where local seafood restaurants would offer the snail as a dish to customers. Unfortunately, the snail releases a foul toxin upon dying, and some restaurants who served the dish went out of business due to customer complaints of the terrible taste. With no solution having been found yet, Miomelon eltanini continues to wreak havoc to this day in Vancouver.