Bizarre sea creatures found washed up on Swansea beach identified

Mysterious creatures which have been spotted washed up on a Swansea beach have been identified.

Ruth Figgis was enjoying a walk with her husband and two children along Llangennith beach at around 1.30pm on Wednesday, February 23 when she spotted the strange looking marine life.

She decided to take pictures of them and show her family, friends and people on social media to try and identify them.

"We went down to Llangennith and followed the tide out to walk down to walk out to Burry Holms, the island," Mrs Figgis said.

"We love going down there and we make dens out of the driftwood on the beach. We timed it because we wanted to go out to the island. We found them in between the beach and the island in the rocks.

"We did notice, before we went over there, tonnes and tonnes of seagulls. The whole area was pretty much covered in seagull poo, so we wondered whether they had been eating them."

Mrs Figgis said it was one of the most unusual things she and her family had spotted during their regular walks in the area.

"We've never seen something like that before," she said.

"I really wanted to know what they were so I took some photos and shared them online. My initial reaction was maybe the seagulls had broken them out of shells, but there was no evidence of smashed shells around.

"It was freezing cold there and blowing a gale so there weren't many other people around. We go to the beach all the time, we've got three dogs and never seen that before. We've shown it to family and friends who have also grown up here and they've never seen it before. I'm guessing it is something that has washed up through the storms."

So what is the mysterious creature?

The Marine Conservation Society has now identified exactly what the creatures are.

They are Thyone fusus, a sea cucumber that buries in sediment. Experts believe they had been washed out by the stormy weather.

The creatures live in sheltered places, buried in mud, or among Modiolus shells. They can be seen all around the British Isles and are on average 10cm to 20cm in length.Their delicately-branched tentacles are usually seen emerging from mud, and their bodies are soft and tapered at both ends, with a short tail.

According to Habitas, their tube-feet are scattered all over the body which is brown and may be covered in shell particles. Their tentacles are normally plain brown in colour, paler or darker in different individuals. The spicules are found all over the body and consist of four-holed plates with central spires.