A group of whale watchers were stunned when they came across an entirely different beast – which they likened to something “right out of the Twilight Zone”.
The group of wildlife buffs happened across the “nightmare” creature in California.
Rather than spotting impressive mammals in the ocean, the Monterey-based group stumbled upon an American bloodworm.
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A video of the huge worm has gone viral on Instagram, garnering 112,000 views and leaving users horrified.
A member of the Monterey Bay Whale Watch said: “We found it just hanging out on our dock this morning and we gently scooped it up with some cardboard and carefully put it back in the water.”
Instagrammers were baffled by the curious beast, reports What’s The Jam.
One person joked: “Hey that’s my lower digestive system.”
“I’ll never unsee that,” said another viewer.
Someone else said: “Starting the day off right with some nightmares!”
“I wish I had not read this. Yuk!” added another disturbed user.
“I never needed to see that. Looks like intestines with a face,” someone else wrote.
Another person commented: “Fascinating yet also terrifying.”
“Why is that worm’s face uncircumcised?” another user joked.
Other users likened it to faeces, “alien”, a large intestine colon, and the “stuff of nightmares”.
The carnivorous worms can grow up to 35 cm (14 in) in length.
They feed by extending a large nose that has four hollow jaws, which are connected to glands that supply venom which they use to kill their prey – and their bite is painful even to a human.
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