Sea creature that resembles human brain found on South Carolina beach. What is it?

Something that looks a lot like a human brain was found on a beach south of Charleston on Monday, inspiring a mix of curiosity and revulsion on social media.

Photos of the large pinkish thing were shared on Facebook by ‎Alexander Ilg‎ of Charleston, who indicated it washed up at Folly Beach in South Carolina.

“Does anybody know what this is?” he asked.

Dozens offered a series of humorous guesses (“a sea alien” and/or “whale snot”), while others reacted with disgust.

“Looks like a severed body part,” Ron Afflebach suggested.

“That’s the brain of (a) tiger shark,” Mitch Chisholsm Sr. said.

“Looks kinda like a really big piece of chewed bubble gum,” offered Beth Kennedy Hughes.

So what is it? The consensus is a harmless creature called sea pork.

“They wash up often the cooler the water gets,” Destiny Hetz posted. “I used to see them all of the time on Sullivan’s island in the winter! I always thought they were jellyfish that were nibbled on by turtles, or some kind of weird sea coral.”

Dozens of the creatures washed ashore at Hilton Head, South Carolina, in November. The Hilton Head Packet suggested at the time that they were tied to a recent storm.

“This marine filter feeder, which is abundant in our waters and a common sight on local beaches, received its common name due to its resemblance to salted pork and fatback,” HiltonHead.com reports.

“These unusual creatures tend to show up on our beaches after storms, strong currents and powerful surf rip them from their hard substrate. Skates and bottom dwelling fish feed on the zooids that create the colonial sea pork,” the tourism site says.

This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 3:46 AM with the headline "Sea creature that resembles human brain found on South Carolina beach. What is it?."