Cool weather and restless seas can bring ashore animals that we don’t often see.  This orange-colored sea pork (Aplidium stellatum) is a colonial tunicate; an animal related to  sea squirts.

They are found along both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. These spineless invertebrates are filter feeders that take in water, filter out plankton, and expel or “squirt” the filtered water back into the Gulf.

They usually attach themselves to docks, pilings, or boat bottoms. When they reproduce in the spring, they release microscopic larvae that serve as food for other sea animals.

Are they harmful? No, they have no stinging cells, nor do they emit toxins.

Could you eat them?  Probably not as they have a dense rubbery like texture.

Is the sea pork that washes on shore alive?  Unfortunately, when sea pork washes ashore, the colony is usually dead and will wash out to sea on the next high tide.