Residents in California's Bay Area are alarmed after a small invasion of giant purple sea slugs that look like human organs has begun washing up on their beaches.
At least one person has called 911 after thinking that a small 'sea hare' was a person's heart.
The mollusks, which can reach up to 15lbs and 30 inches long, are native to the area around cities such as Alameda and Oakland, but have begun washing up on shore by the dozens recently.
Sea hares live for about a year and lay eggs that look like noodles before dying, which they have been doing in increasing numbers.
Twenty-two of the purple blobs were spotted in an inlet to Lake Merritt in Oakland last month, according to the Contra Costa Times.
The ones recently found have not reached peak size and are about the size of a fist.
Officials don't have any precise figures on the total number of sea hares that have washed ashore.
'It's not endangered, but they are rarely seen other than an occasional one here or there,' the East Bay Regional Park District's Carloyn Jones said.
Morgan Dill, who works for the park district, said that the phenomenon may be linked to warmer water temperatures.
The mollusks like to lay their stringy eggs in water that is between 55 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit (13-25 degrees C).
The current scale of the sea slugs washing ashore is thought to be the second time there has been an unusually high rate of the animals dying off in the past 15 years.
Dill and her fellow naturalists say that the sea hares, which emit purple ink, are not dangerous.
However they cautioned that residents who are not grossed out by the strange blobs should not take them home.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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