The Weirdest Sea Creatures To Ever Wash Up On the Beach

Deep sea anglerfish

The deep sea anglerfish is already one of the spookiest creatures in the ocean. It’s so frightening, in fact, that one of these things was used to give children a jumpscare in the classic Pixar film Finding Nemo. For those who are freaked out by these things, there’s one cold comfort: namely, that these fish live so far below the surface of the water that most people are unlikely to ever see one in real life.

However, in May 2021, visitors to California’s Crystal Cove State Park found one of these things washed up on the shore. They were understandably perplexed, as these creepy fish are usually found 3,000 feet beneath sea level. And to this day, it’s unclear what made this one wash up, proving that the ocean is as full of mysteries as it is full of fish.

Mysterious hairy beast

By definition, all of the creatures on this list are weird…the kind of things you never expect to wash up on the beach. In the case of the anglerfish, everyone knew what it was, but the mystery was how and why it ended up on the beach. Just ask yourself: how much weirder would it be if there was a giant sea creature that nobody could even identify?

That’s exactly what happened in May 2018. That was when visitors to the Oriental Mindoro province of the Philippines noticed that an oversized, hairy beast had washed up on the beach. Nobody knew what it was…just that it had a terrible smell. While onlookers gave it the unflattering nickname “the globster,” scientists later speculated that this was most likely the remains of a giant whale. The exact answer, however, remains unknown.

Giant squid

Remember when we said that some of the things that washed up on the beach over the years seemed right out of a weird sci-fi movie? Sometimes, that’s more true than others. For example, early sailors were captivated by the idea that a giant squid might attack and destroy their ships. Because of this, many early sci-fi movies dealt with giant squids and other oversized sea creatures terrorizing humanity.

And in October 2013, the movies came to life for visitors to a Spanish beach in Cantabria. They discovered the carcass of a squid that was a whopping 30 feet long. If that’s not impressive enough, the thing weighed a whopping 400 pounds! Between the size of its limbs and the size of its eyes, you can see why giant squids have been a subject of fascination for centuries.

Sea lions missing their heads

By now, you’ve probably noticed that most of the creatures on this list are crazy because of what they are. That is, nobody expects anglerfish, giant squids, or unidentified monsters washing up on the shore. Sometimes, though, the most surprising thing about what washes up isn’t the creatures themselves but what has happened to them.

For example, those who visited Vancouver Island, Canada, between April and July of 2020 were perplexed by the sight of sea lion carcasses that were missing their heads. Even local scientists were stumped because some of the bodies had clean skulls right next to their corpses. Eventually, experts determined that humans had removed the heads, but nobody ever figured out if these humans had killed the sea lions or had simply decapitated them after they died naturally.

Penis fish

Sometimes, locals and scientists are surprised when a single unexplained creature washes up on the beach. Other times, though, the things that wash up are much more mundane. And what makes them weird is the fact that so many wash up at the same time.

This was the case for visitors to California’s Drake Beach in 2019. In that area, it wasn’t that uncommon for the fat inkeeper worm to wash up. However, that year, thousands of these things washed up on the beach. Considering that these creatures have the nickname “penis fish,” local residents were both amused and confused to see so many phallic fish piled up. While the mystery of how they got there was never fully solved, many experts assume it was a storm that caused it to rain men–er, penis fish–on this otherwise unassuming beach.