More goose barnacles were seen washed up on the beach after the strange seafood was seen near Boscombe pier.

Walkers spotted the “alien looking” creatures, that could be worth “thousands of pounds” washed up on Boscombe beach last weekend.

But another group of the crustaceans, which have a long fleshy steam topped with a chalky white shell, were seen the previous week in Milford on Sea.

Lanisha Butterfield, from Oxford, was visiting family in the New Forest over the new year near the town when she sighted some of the creatures washed up on the beach there.

“It was a beautiful day, it couldn’t have been any clearer, it was almost sunset. We were just walking along the beach and my nephew was jumping along the beach huts.

“Then we spotted it,” she said.

Bournemouth Echo:

“We just knew straight away that it was a bit strange, I touched it and it moved,” she said.

“I said to my sister that it looked like seaweed but alive. The only time I’ve ever seen anything like that was in Portugal, I ate the ones that look like dinosaurs’ feet, but these looked slightly different.”

Goose barnacles are considered a delicacy in Spain and Portugal and can fetch up to £80 a kilo, as they can be difficult to harvest. They can be found on rocks along coastlines, and on flotsam which can wash them onto beaches.

This group of barnacles were seen by Lanisha on what looked to be a piece of an anchor or a buoy.

Lanisha didn’t realise that it was rare to see the sea creatures in the UK, so took a photo for her nephew, who identified the goose barnacles, and then carried on with her walk.

It was only when she saw reports of the barnacles in the news that she realised what she had seen. “We didn’t think anything of it being unusual in this country, so we took the picture and then went about our day,” she said.

“There were so many there on the beach, so I was surprised that no one had mentioned it.”

It is believed that the recent sightings of the barnacles on the beach were due to the recent stormy weather.