Thousands of 'penis fish' wash onto California beach

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's a penis fish?

Thousands of "pulsing penis fish" have washed ashore on a California beach, as seen in jarring photos that are raising eyebrows due to the creature's phallic shape.

The quirky marine life is officially called fat innkeeper worms (Urechis caupo), and an expert writes for Bay Nature that he believes a recent storm in the Drakes Beach area is the reason so many of them mysteriously appeared on the beach.

Ivan Parr, a biologist from the Western Section of the Wildlife Society, spotted them Dec. 6 and explains that the 10-inch fat innkeeper worm typically lives underwater, burrowing in mud or sand, but the storm likely carried them ashore.