![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/17340076_072825-wpvi-wildwood-worms-img.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nWILDWOOD, N.J. (WPVI) — On a picture-perfect beach day in Wildwood, plenty of people were keeping their eyes peeled for worms.<\/p>\n
“Worm slash little eel things. They looked like little eels,” said Justin Newman from Hershey, Pa.<\/p>\n
Photos and videos popped up all over social media over the weekend. The worms – about an inch long – were swimming in the ocean.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Tons of little worms the size of these little sticks. They’re probably about this long, this wide, half black, half orange,” said Jill Morrish of Grand Island, N.Y.<\/p>\n
And they garnered some mixed reviews from some visitors.<\/p>\n
“They’re nasty. They’re weird,” said Kason Crane, 10, of Fairmont W.V.<\/p>\n
And they’re pretty common in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n
Christine Thompson, an associate professor of marine science from Stockton University, says these worms are likely clam worms, also known as bristle worms or cinder worms.<\/p>\n
“They’re marine polychaetes. They’re related to earthworms, so that’s like the terrestrial version,” said Thompson.<\/p>\n
And the fact that they were out in large numbers, she says, likely means one thing.<\/p>\n
“When it is time for them to spawn or mate, that’s when they start swimming,” said Thompson. “And they have this particular behavior where they start swimming around, and that’s how they breed.”<\/p>\n
She says they’re relatively harmless, with a few anecdotal accounts of biting from anglers who were handling the worms.<\/p>\n
While they were certainly a surprise, they didn’t seem to keep people away from the water, unlike certain other sea creatures.<\/p>\n
“It was different. Anything but jellyfish, I’m okay with,” said Cassidy Wright from Green Lane, Pa.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the worms were gone in Wildwood and North Wildwood, to the delight of many.<\/p>\n
Thompson says that typically, these breeding events are short and the worms often die shortly after.<\/p>\n
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