Thousands of glowing ‘sea pickles’ wash up on California beaches, marine experts say

Weird, glowing tube-like creatures known as “sea pickles” are invading Monterey Bay beaches, the Monterey Bay Aquarium reports.

Officially called pyrosomes, the sea pickles are “free floating colonies of tiny, multicellular creatures” called zoioids that feed by filtering water for phytoplankton, KSBW reported.

Thousands of the pale orange and pink sea pickles are washing ashore on Asilomar State Beach and Carmel Beach, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Pyrosomes are bioluminescent, meaning they produce their own light, but they are not edible despite their nickname, KPIX reported.

They are not related to the so-called “penis fish,” or fat innkeeper worms, washing ashore farther north at Drakes Beach, as reported previously by McClatchy News.

Sea pickles are more frequently found off the coast of Southern California, but Monterey Bay Aquarium experts say big waves and strong currents are pushing them onto northern beaches, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“They were quite the pickles!” said Molly Knight, who discovered the sea pickles at Carmel Beach on Wednesday, according to the publication. “Hundreds of them! It had rained the evening before and I guess the high tides washed them in.”

Knight posted a photo of the creatures to Twitter inquiring about them and the Monterey Bay Aquarium responded, identifying them as sea pickles.

On Thursday, marine biologists from the aquarium visited Asilomar State Beach to check out another collection of sea pickles and posted a video to Twitter.

This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 12:32 PM.