A recent bout of stormy weather has left thousands of ‘penis fish’ exposed to the elements in Northern California.
Thousands of the pulsating sea worms washed up on Drakes Beach around 80km north of San Francisco last week.
Officially named the fat innkeeper worm or Urechis caupo, the worms are generally between six and ten inches in length and live in U-shaped burrows in the shallows of the North American west coast.
This may just be the weirdest thing you've seen today!
Thousands of these marine worms, called fat innkeeper worms—or "penis fish"—washed up on Drake's Beach after a recent storm. 🌊 But why? https://t.co/MwY6xkN3kb pic.twitter.com/vGMpSvGoAT
— Bay Nature magazine (@BayNature) December 11, 2019
Strong storms can see mud and sands stripped away from coastal areas leaving them exposed for all to see – and causing quite a shock to anyone out for a morning stroll.
Local resident David Ford told Vice he didn’t know what to think when he came upon thousands of the fish earlier this month.
“I walked for another half hour and they were scattered everywhere,” he said.
“There were seagulls lined up the beach the whole way having eaten so much they could barely stand.
“A quarter of them looked like they were still alive. The rest were dead, they had a dead sea-creature smell.”
It is not the first time the phallic fish have shocked California beachgoers – with similar events happening at different beaches along the coast over the years.
While Urechis caupo is a uniquely Californian species, its East Asian cousin Urechis unicinctus is a delicacy in countries like South Korea.
