What the great big ball of snot is this?

I try my best when creating new programs to try to anticipate questions I might get, problems I might run into while doing the program, but every now and then all my years of school and every ounce of research fails to help answer the question; "What's that?" Sometimes I just have to snap a quick picture with my cellphone and then research it later.

So quick snap number one:

What I knew at the time: it moved like a leach, lives in saltwater, and fell out of a lobsters mouth.

So what is it? Our slimy friend here is the termite of the ocean known as a shipworm. Now just which of the many species of shipworm this might be I have not the first clue. Unlike what their name implies they are not actually worms they are in fact clams. If you were to zoom in on the top of the shipworms head, towards the top of this photo, you would find some hard calcareous structures which act as rasps and allows it to bore its way into a piece of wood where those wood bits are digested by a symbiotic bacteria which live inside the shipworm. These little critters helped the British defeat the Spanish Armada because the shipworms had so riddled the wood of the ships they damaged more easily when struck by cannon fire. Since shipworms could cripple a naval fleet when ships such as the USS Constitution were commissioned they were required to be built with overlapping copper panels to keep the shipwoms from destroying the hull. Even in modern days shipworms are estimated to cause about a billion dollars in damage to wooden structured around the world! Oh, whatever you don't Google videos of Giant Shipworms!


Quick snap number two:   

What I knew at the time: it was covered in mucus, appeared to have a large hole in the "top" of the creature, had a large suction cup like foot similar to a snail, it was in a lobster trap with a bunch of crabs, about the size of a wiffle ball. 

So what is it? Well I still have no idea. I posted this picture along with the above description a number of different places looking for help sadly to no avail. What it might be is a moon snail which has been pulled out of its shell or there is also a possibility it was a sea slug. Now I have seen lots of moon snail shells on beaches from time to time especially after a large storm, but I have never seen a shell with a snail still in it. Some snail shells have other occupants in them like this one.

Hermit crab hides out in a moon snail shell.

After having looked at a number of photographs of moon snail meat I feel somewhat confident that the big ball of slimy brown stuff may in fact be a moon snail. If anyone out there reading this has a better idea of what this is please feel free to let me know!