Video by Jason Self.

Gadzooks! A mutant dolphin fetus. No, it’s some kind of gelatinous underwater banana. Wait, it’s a floppy-headed, blood-thristy sea snake. Don’t touch it!

Relax. If you see this twirling mess of an animal floating along our coastline, take comfort in knowing it’s just a harmless sea snail.

Local tour guide Jason Self said he encountered dozens of these derpy gastropods while kayaking in Trinidad on Sunday. Unsure what they were, Self pointed his ultra HD camera at one of the creatures and captured this otherworldly video.

“There were dozens of these things, all about 3-5 inches long,” Self wrote in a Facebook post. “Most had been wrecked by seagulls. A few were swimming. They would dive a foot or two when I got close, and then appeared to get curious and swim right at the GoPro.”

The video stirred up a fair amount of speculation on the internet regarding this snail’s proper classification. So LoCO reached out to a couple of brainiacs at Humboldt State to help us identify this mushy mollusk.

Based on the video evidence available, HSU Professor of marine ecology Paul Bourdeau said the creature is likely a Carinaria japonica (an underwater snail).

“[It’s] almost certainly Carinaria, and very likely japonica, which is a north Pacific species,” Bourdeau said. “I haven’t been around here enough to know how commonly they show up in the eastern north Pacific.”

Professor of oceanography Christine Cass confirmed that the snails are common in Humboldt waters.

“Carinaria japonica is the most common type of carinaria we see off our coasts, Cass said. “And Humboldt is well within its normal geographic range.”

So, there you have it. They’re just snails; big, slimy, beady-eyed snails.