Dog walker surprised by worm-like creature found washed-up on Anglesey beach

A dog walker who regularly visits a beach in Anglesey has been left stunned by an unusual discovery.

While out with her dogs on Traeth Lligwy, near Moelfre, on Monday 3 April, Katie Tootell came upon a creature she had never seen before.

Ms Tootell originally thought it was a washed-up jellyfish but on closer inspection she realised it was something quite different.

What she found was a rubbery pile of translucent worm-like creatures, each one around two inches-long.

The creature was around 25cm long as a whole and on close inspection, had hundreds of tiny dots.

The small white dots inside the capsules are believed to be squid eggs. Squid eggs are normally anchored to the sea floor but can become loose and so wash-up on the shore.

According to the Wildlife Trust, female squids lay up to 20,000 eggs in the gelatinous white tubes.

While not an everyday sight in north Wales, this does happen occasionally - particularly after a spring storm when squids are likely to be laying eggs and the sea is unsettled.

Katie said: "The dogs spotted it first and when they started to sniff it I thought they'd just come across a jellyfish, but when I saw it up close, I didn't have a clue what it was.

"I've been coming to the beach for 12 years and I've never seen anything like it before."

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