17 Shocking Beach Finds That May Want You to Rethink Your Vacation Plans

The ocean is a mysterious place, hiding so many secrets humankind has yet to decipher. On that note, here are some fascinating beach finds that these Redditors hadn’t encountered before. The good thing is their curiosity drove them to ask questions, and these mysterious objects have now been identified.

1. “Found this while beach combing in the Olympic Peninsula. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

• Squid eggs!! Neat, isn’t it? knitwasabi / Reddit

2. “What is this thing? Washed up on a beach in Cape Breton, NS.”

• Definitely a baleen whale carcass. It’s too decomposed to make a positive identification. However, here’s an interesting write-up on identification via the size of the vertebrae—if you can get past the stench long enough to take some measurements. s****emupy2k / Reddit

3. “Someone in town found this on the beach today. She said it was squishy, very large, and had no smell.”

• It looks like it might be a tunicate called sea pork or sea liver. raineykatz / Reddit

4. “Bony marine skeleton found on a beach near Charleston, SC. About 3.5 feet long and slightly leathery in some places. Dog for scale.”

• Sturgeon. Guygan / Reddit

5. “Washed up on the beach in Montauk.”

• It looks like a wildcat for an anchor chain. Your foot is on the worm gear. On the right side is the drum that holds the chain links. TugboatEng / Reddit

6. “What are these brightly colored string-like things that were washed up on an Australian beach?”

• Sea hare eggs. scotty_beams / Reddit

7. “Bundle of rubbery sheets found washed up on a beach in the Caribbean.”

• These are rubber sheets from harvesting rubber from rubber trees. They ship them in cubes with a bunch of these. ubercl0ud / Reddit

8. “What is this fiber/sand ball? Found among thousands like it on a beach in Spain. It weighs almost nothing.”

• Sea grass ball. 4-me / Reddit

9. “Found this on the beach in Aruba. Round plastic like exterior feel with clear substance and green things inside.”

• Sailor’s eyeball. nitro479 / Reddit
• That thing is just one huge single celled organism? New-Neighborhood-147 / Reddit
• I am incredibly proud that this was my first thought. Would never have been sure enough to comment, so I’m glad you did. floutsch / Reddit

10. “Spooked me, washed up on the beach in Thailand.”

• Hermit crabs sometimes die when they change shells. I kept hermit crabs for a long time, and it would always make me sad when my happy little crabs didn’t change their shells successfully. aprildianne1 / Reddit

11. “Found on a beach in the Florida panhandle. Feels like a shell, looks like skin. My dog thinks it looks delicious.”

• That looks like a fragment of a pen shell. Specifically, a sawtooth penshell (Atrina serrata). MrDorkESQ / Reddit
• Additional pictures.
  Edit: my husband and I think either cone shell or puffer fish skin, but then again, we are the ones who thought adopting a dog who eats shells was a good idea. I_LIKE_LIMA_BEANS / Reddit

12. “Mother and girlfriend found this on the beach today. Any idea what it is?”

• Probably already been said, but I wouldn’t touch it!
  It’s more than likely an anemone, and some can cause serious pain or numbness from the venom they hold. I’ve worked with fish tanks for a long time and from accidentally touching small ones, I’ve had my whole arm go numb. weirdo0808 / Reddit

13. “These strange ’rocks’ have appeared on the beach in west Wales over the last year.”

• They are about a foot in diameter and made of particles of sand stuck together. The tubes obviously contain a creature of some sort. I’ve lived here for 9 years, but I have never seen these on the beach before. Scrumble71 / Reddit
• They’re honeycomb worms and they’re purple! mawktheone / Reddit

14. “What kind of sea creature was in this shell? I’ve never seen this pattern before.”

• calico crab. More information. raineykatz / Reddit

15. “Strange sea creature or plant? I’m positive it moved in my hand (Pacific coast).”

• Yep, it’s a comatulid crinoid, and a beautiful specimen. They evolved in the Early Ordovician (~485 million years ago), so it is a living fossil. For comparison, here are a couple of camerates that I collected from 450-million-year-old rocks in Kentucky: Reteocrinus sp. thanatocoenosis / Reddit
  

16. “Found on a beach of Lake Erie. I’ve lived near the lake my whole life. Never saw anything like this.”

• Is it the roof plate of a drumfish? eetbittyotumblotum / Reddit
• I know what it is via my hobby. Found plates like these during fossil hunting. They are a few million years old. eetbittyotumblotum / Reddit

17. “Found on the beach after hurricane Dorian wreaked havoc on the Maritimes.”

• These rat tailed sea cucumbers look similar. raineykatz / Reddit
• If you touch it, it will throw out its intestines out at you. Sea cucumbers are weird. stylesm11 / Reddit

Life within the ocean can be quite bizarre, right? But nothing can be weirder than these people, who have had some really strange ideas about creative pursuits.