Following a bout of winter storms, thousands of phallic shaped sea creatures have drifted to the shore on a California beach. Due to its shape, the “pulsing penis fish” have raised eyebrows on social media.

Ivan Parr, biologist from the Western Section of The Wildlife Society, first spotted the creatures and explained that 10-inch creature typically lives underwater.

According to a report by Bay Nature magazine, these creatures are marine worms and are called “fat innkeeper worms.” However, colloquially, they are called exactly what they look like: penis fish.

The caption informed, “A recent storm in Northern California brought strong waves that washed away several feet of sand from the inter-tidal zone, leaving all these fat innkeeper worms exposed on the surface.”

The New York Post reported that the creature typically eats bacteria, plankton and other small particles which it collects using “sticky mucus nets”. It further informed that the creatures’ dates back 300 million years and also can be eaten.

An anonymous employee at The Post, who has eaten the worm in Shanghai, China, has described the taste as “a Livestrong band mated with a clam.”