Penis fish| Diver spots ‘penis fish’ underwater off coast of Australia, photos go viral

A diver has captured some incredibly rare photographs of ‘penis fish’ underwater off the coast of Australia. Josie Jones, 48, was cleaning the waters around Rye Front Beach in Victoria when she came across the bizarre marine worm.

Josie helps clean up the beach and give marine creatures a better life under the waves.

“I have cleaned this beach for 10 years and so I’ve seen the difference cleaning has made to the water. I dive to take photos and document the increase of seagrasses and sea beds. I clean the beaches to improve water quality. It was a sea cucumber or penis worm, only the nerds get crazy on what subspecies it is. We have over 160 species living under our pier,” Josie was quoted as saying by LADbible.

(Image: Facebook/Josie Jones)

Biologists pointed out that the marine creature was actually a worm known as priapulida, a type of unsegmented worm that resides at the bottom of the ocean.

(Image: Facebook/Josie Jones)

Their body consists of two parts – a prosoma, which is sometimes called an introvert, and a trunk. They live in the mud and in comparatively shallow waters up to 90 metres (300 feet) deep.

(Image: Facebook/Josie Jones)

Priapulida isn’t the only phallic fish in the sea.

Last year, thousands of ‘penis fish’ washed up at Drakes Beach in California, US. The 10-inch marine worms that looked like ‘pink-sausage’ were spotted by Ivan Parr, a biologist from the Western Section of The Wildlife Society. Their scientific name is Urechis unicinctus.

It was believed that a recent storm forced the fat innkeeper worms out of their underwater homes and washed them ashore to be exposed to predators. They create U-shared burrows in mud for other creatures to move in, thus getting the name ‘innkeeper’.