Heart-Shaped Sea Pork: The Strange Ocean Creature That Surprised a Beachgoer
A few months ago, a woman was walking along the beach when she noticed a heart-shaped blob sitting in the shallow water. At first, she had no idea what it was — she’d never seen anything like it before.
The woman sent a video of the mystery animal to Jillian Daly, a marine science communicator who shares videos about ocean invertebrates on Instagram. As soon as Daly saw the woman’s video, she knew exactly who it was: a sea pork.
What Is a Sea Pork?
Sea porks are a species of tunicate, a common type of ocean-dwelling invertebrate. While there are over 3,000 species of tunicates, many people have never heard of them before.
According to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History:
“Tunicates are marine filter feeders whose bodies are basically sacks or tubes that draw in and expel water, thereby snagging tiny particles of floating stuff to eat.”
You may have already come across a tunicate without realizing it — especially after a big storm, when they often wash up on beaches.
Tunicates: Closer to Humans Than You Think
As strange as tunicates may seem, they’re not as different from humans as you might expect. Although they’re invertebrates, during their larval stage, they have a structure similar to a spine, making them our closest invertebrate relatives — closer than butterflies, crabs, or even octopuses.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History even calls this the “wackiest fact” about tunicates: among all marine invertebrates, they are the most closely related to humans and other vertebrates.
Why Are They Called “Sea Pork”?
The word tunicate comes from tunic, a reference to their exoskeleton-like covering. With thousands of tunicate species, their appearance varies widely, giving rise to many nicknames, including sea tulip, sea pineapple, sea liver, and of course, sea pork.
Why Was This Sea Pork Heart-Shaped?
One of the fascinating things about tunicates is their ability to take on different forms. Some look elongated, others appear as blobs, and sometimes — like in this woman’s case — they form a more defined shape, such as a heart.
Keep an Eye Out on the Beach
Next time you’re walking along the shore, keep an eye out for washed-up sea pork. If you’re lucky, you might stumble upon one in a shape that feels like a little message from the ocean — maybe even a heart.
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A woman discovered a heart-shaped sea pork on the beach — a type of tunicate, one of our closest invertebrate relatives. Learn what sea porks are and why they sometimes wash up in unique shapes.