An odd-looking creature swimming near a bridge in South Carolina has even wildlife officials looking for answers.
But a TV meteorologist says he’s already solved the mystery.
The viral footage shows something in the waters near Pawleys Island with what looks like wings and even something resembling a beak ― but it’s definitely not a bird.
The Marine Resources Research Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, told NBC station WLTX its scientists have no idea what it is as the institute shared the footage sent in by a viewer:
“The people in my office are mostly stumped, but we’re not the experts,” an official with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources told WCNC, the NBC station in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Brad Panovich, the station’s chief meteorologist, said on the air that he solved the mystery.
“At first, I thought it was a cuttlefish,” he said. But he believes it’s a critter called a sea hare or sea slug.
“They can be pretty large, and they do swim in the water like that,” Panovich said.
The only odd thing: They’re not typically found in waters off South Carolina.
“It’s more of a Florida and West Coast thing,” Panovich said. But he noted that there have been sightings as far north as Wilmington, North Carolina.
As waters get warmer, the sea slugs seem to be moving farther north: