Thanks to Lad Bible for this:
A diver has managed to capture some incredibly rare photos of the elusive ‘penis fish‘ underwater off the coast of Australia.
Free diver Josie Jones, 48, was scouring the waters around Rye Beach, Victoria, Australia when she came across the bizarre marine worm.
Obviously, you can see where it gets that unique moniker from, because it really does look like a weird willy, doesn’t it?
To be fair, it’s actually called a priapulida in scientific terms, but penis fish is a lot more fun.
Josie was naturally quite amused by her discovery, as were those who later saw it on social media.
After she uploaded the images from her underwater camera, one person commented: “Wow some marine animals are going to have fun with that.”
Josie responded: “You’ve got such a wonderful imagination.”
Another person said: “It made my day and some of my friend’s [sic] day too.”
However, Josie isn’t just out there for a jolly. Part of what she does is to help clean up the beach and give the creatures – no matter how strange – a better life under the waves.
She explained: “It’s so funny little creatures like the sea cucumber have a better life.
“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 also runs a campaign to stop people littering by the Australian seaside, and has spent a whole heap of her own time pulling things out of the water that shouldn’t be there.
So, there you have it. If you laughed at the unusual majesty of the penis fish, you have a duty of care to protect it so that future generations can laugh at it too.
Swim free, mighty penis fish. Swim free.
