Interior Secretary nominee David Bernhardt had a surprise attendee to his confirmation hearing Thursday — The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

During Mr. Bernhardt’s opening statement, a woman ln clear view behind the nominee leaned down and when she comes back up, she had on a mask of the creature — formally known at “Gill-man” — on her head.

Look in the background during Interior Secretary Nominee David Bernhardt’s opening statement.



Watch LIVE on C-SPAN3 https://t.co/i3oegv9okf pic.twitter.com/UiiaVfV8h2 — CSPAN (@cspan) March 28, 2019

Seen at Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearings for Trump appointee David Bernhardt, the nominee for interior secretary pic.twitter.com/G1xrDGF81h — Chris Riotta (@chrisriotta) March 28, 2019

The Independent reported Greenpeace was behind the swamp creature display, adding the demonstrator said Mr. Bernhardt is “one of us.”

“He’s down here in the muck every day advocating for the dirty fossil fuels we swamp monsters love. I wanted to be at his shining moment to make sure he won’t forget where he came from,” said the protester.

Mr. Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist whose clients included oil companies, is likely to be confirmed after serving in an interim role since Ryan Zinke was ousted under an ethics cloud at the end of last year.

Conservation groups panned Mr. Bernhardt as a “walking conflict of interest.”

• Tom Howell contributed to this article

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