You try to look at nature with respect… but sometimes nature doesn’t cooperate.
After a storm on the coast of Chubut, hundreds of pink, cylindrical, shiny organisms appeared on the sand in areas like Comodoro Rivadavia and Puerto Madryn. And of course, the scene left everyone looking twice before asking what exactly that was.
Although people popularly call them “penis fish” —for reasons that don’t need much explanation—, they actually aren’t fish. They are marine worms called Urechis unicinctus, a species that lives buried under the sand on the seafloor and is rarely exposed that way.
But this time they all came out together, probably dragged in by the storm, and the beach ended up turning into a scene that was pretty hard to ignore. Tourists didn’t know whether to get closer, laugh, or pull out their phones first.
And well, the internet did what it had to do. Because you can say “marine organism” all you want, but when something shows up on the beach with that shape… science comes after the meme.
Watch the video here: