Aussie catches 'fascinating' species off the coast: 'What is this creature?'

Oceans are home to creatures so strange they look to be from another world entirely and a photo of a "fascinating" species has left many wondering what on earth it could be.

The specimen found off a boat out in the bay at Western Port, Victoria, has an orange hook-like bottom and what almost looks like beige feathers at the top. A curious Aussie shared the image of it in a Facebook nature group asking if anyone was able to identify it.

People came forward with ideas of what it could be, from a "shark egg" to a "weed", while others also joked about its "d**k" like shape. Some comments were seemingly deleted and a moderator turned off commenting on the post for good to stop the onslaught of innuendos.

It is a colony of animals, called a Sea Pen

Dr Merrick Ekins with the Queensland Museum told Yahoo News Australia the creature is a sea pen likely from the virgularia species. "[They are] endemic and not harmful," the Collection Manager of Sessile Marine Invertebrates told Yahoo News Australia.

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Sea pens are marine invertebrates in the same class as anemones and corals and are actually a colony of animals made up of polyps. They can live in places swept by currents, within protected bays and gulfs, and in deeper waters off open coasts. The stalk of a sea pen remains buried in sediment while the feather-like top sticks out and collects food and pumps water.

Sea pens, which feast on drifting plankton and can grow up to 46cm long, are not harmful to pick up but can feel spiky.

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