What Is This Thing That Washed Up on the Shore of a Maine Lake?

Back in 2022, a woman named Val posted a picture of something strange she found on the shore of China Lake in the Friends of China Maine Facebook group.

In the post, she explained that it was "as big as her arm."

Commenters on the Facebook post at that time had their own opinions.

Someone claimed it was a giant leach (obviously, a joke), and several people said it was some sort of plant.

Apparently, according to one commenter, there were a bunch of them all over the boat dock.

I spent about half an hour going over the picture she posted, and several others she sent to me at the time.

All I can say is that it looks like something out of a horror movie.  Like the kind of thing that a mad scientist would make in a lab and then unleash on the world.

Seriously, it looks like there are shrimp tails growing out of it!

There must be an obvious answer as to what this is, but we have never seen anything like it. And, most of us have spent the majority of our lives in Central Maine.

Even a few years later now, in 2024, I'm still hoping someone might have an answer and can share what it actually is.

What do you think it is? Do you know?