What is sea pork, and why does it wash up on Hilton Head Island beaches during hurricane season?

Chloe Appleby
·2 min read
Sea Pork is a member of the tunicate family and can be found on beaches along the each coast. This one was on Hilton Head Island.

Hurricane season can bring Lowcountry creatures to the surface, from alligators walking through busy streets to odd pink blobs washing up in the surf. Better known as Sea Pork, these unusual creatures are actually a distant relative to humans.

Jerry Staub, one of the directors for Shore Beach Services on Hilton Head, said that the creatures often wash up on shore on the north and south ends of the island after rough weather and high surf.

After Hurricane Helene’s path across the Lowcountry at the end of September, locals posted evidence of the strange looking creatures on social media. Staub said that he came across just a few pieces while covering a three-mile area on the north end of the island after the storm.

Dr. Kim Ritchie, a University of South Carolina-Beaufort professor in the department of natural sciences, said that sea pork, like sponges or coral, are usually attached to hard surfaces, like the rock jetties near Hunting Island, but they can get dislodged during storms and end up on the beach.

According to Dr. Joseph Staton, a professor of Biology and Marine Sciences at USCB, once they end up on the beaches, like Portuguese man’o war and cannonball jellyfish, the sea pork will likely not survive.

Sea Pork can be found all along the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico, Staton said. The pink blob turns pale gray as it dies, resembling pork, but it is also called sea squirt (since it tends to spray water when it is removed its wet home), and is a member of the tunicate family (since their squishy interiors are protected by a thick exterior, known as a tunic.)

Whatever you call it, sea pork is actually a distant relative to humans. During their larvae stage, sea pork share several similar characteristics to human embryos in the womb, Staton said.

Like barnacles, sea pork are sessiles, which means once they pick a spot, they do not move. Like oysters, sea pork are filter feeders. According to Staton, compounds from creatures within the sea pork family have been extracted to treat some cancers and HIV because of their ability to fight off fungi and bacteria.

Despite their strange appearance, sea pork are harmless to touch, but according to Staub, can get smelly as they dry up on the beaches.