Video: Freaky Pink Critters Hit North Oregon Coast, Nature Disposes of Dead Whale

Published 05/29/26 at 12:55 A.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Seaside, Oregon) – Numerous rather striking things have been the result of all the sneaker waves and unruly tides along the coastline as of late. A lot of funky stuff is washing up onshore, and reports of this are just beginning to come in. (Photos and video Seaside Aquarium)

A couple of these incidents were documented by Seaside Aquarium's Tiffany Boothe, and included a whole gob of rather ugly beasties that look like someone had been raided by organ thieves. There's also a kind of update to what's been happening to one of the deceased whales left on the beach for nature to devour.

That gray whale showed up here almost two months ago, and now it's getting nibbled at by creatures who feed on it and the testy tides. [ Another Gray Whale Washes Up on Oregon Coast, at Seaside: Early Observations, Video ]

Video here shows before and after.

Then there's those freaky pink things.

“Skin-breathing sea cucumbers can be seen littering the tideline on Seaside beach,” Boothe said.

It's not too unusual, especially this time of year. Tides have been a little more unruly lately than spring seasons normally are, however.

Video may take time to load

They are something markedly different than your average marine flotsam and jetsam.

“They live just past the surf, burrowed into the sand for protection,” Boothe told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “Most of the time they are just fine, nestled down in sand, but certain ocean conditions, such as heavy surf combined with low tides can dislodge them leaving them stranded along the shoreline; sometimes by the thousands.”

Their scientific name is Leptosynapta clarki, and for many years they stumped most longtime residents and even experts on the Oregon coast. Before 2015 or so, real documentation about this by cellphones hardly ever happened.

For Boothe, it was about then when she saw her first one, and she'd been at the aquarium for nearly two decades by that point. Now, they're known as somewhat commonplace, only showing up in great numbers every once in awhile.

Boothe told Oregon Coast Beach Connection that once they burrow into the mud they start feeding on organic stuff around them. When the ocean unearths them and brings them onshore, they resemble peanut worms and you may actually see them wiggling in such a way as they to burrow back into the sand.

Boothe said sea cucumbers lack a respiratory tree and instead absorb oxygen directly through their body wall.

Video may take time to load

They belong to the echinoderm family, making them relatives of sea stars, urchins and sand dollars. The relationship doesn’t offer much protection, however: sea stars and sun stars are among their primary predators.

Sea cucumbers are common throughout the Pacific Northwest and along the West Coast, from southern Canada to Mexico. They hatch in spring and immediately burrow into sediment, reaching their full length of about 35 millimeters by August.

There is also another species found along the coastline, the California sea cucumber — a creature known for an unusual trait: it breathes out of its butt. California Sea Cucumber Breathes Out of Its Butt: Weird Washington, Oregon Coast Science

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