Woman has fun with penis worm during deep dive

A diver was left in hysterics after stumbling across something… slightly untoward at the bottom of the ocean.

Josie Jones, 48, was scouring the sea floor in Rye, Victoria, Australia a few weeks ago when she was confronted by a rather unfortunate-looking creature.

Using her underwater camera Josie snapped pictures of the bizarre ‘penis worm’ and uploaded them to social media – uncensored.

She said she ‘couldn’t contain her laughter’ when she first saw it.

‘Wow, some marine animals are going to have fun with that,’ joked one person, to which Josie replied: ‘You’ve got such a wonderful imagination.’

Someone else added: ‘It made my day and some of my friends’ days too.’

‘Sea cucumbers, apparently some people eat them…’ wrote someone else, who thought the penis worm was a sea cucumber.

The animal is not actually a sea cucumber but is instead a priapulida, which gets its unusual nickname due to its bendy shape resembling a human penis.

The sea cucumber is a different species that has skin which is more like leather.

Priapulidas live in fairly shallow waters up to 300ft deep and bury themselves in mud, which they eat.

They can be traced back to prehistoric times and were thought to be major predators back then.

Josie is an active free diver and helps to clean Rye Front Beach on a regular basis.

She said she does it ‘so funny little creatures like the sea cucumber have a better life’.

‘I have cleaned this beach for 10 years and so I’ve seen the difference cleaning has made to the water,’ she said.

‘I dive to take photos and document the increase of seagrasses and sea beds. I clean the beaches to improve water quality.

‘It was a sea cucumber or penis worm, only the nerds get crazy on what subspecies it is. We have over 160 species living under our pier.’