PHOTOS: Strange Animals Wash Ashore Dead

This weekend, I cruised to Bodega Bay, California to take in the sights. But I wasn't prepared for the smells.  

I strolled on the sand toward the water, reveling in the fresh sea air, until I reached a line made of seaweed and sea creature corpses. A swarm of flies buzzed in the air immediately above them.

The unmistakeable scent of rotting seafood accosted my nose. I urged my stomach to calm down, while I took a step closer to see what they were.

Tangled within sea weed ropes, lay what looked like a pack of small aquatic armadillos, albeit headless, legless, and tail less.  Or perhaps they were sea roly polys. Unclear.  

The underside of the creature appeared to be made of some sort of pink flesh, that had two large openings running down the middle. The seagulls had gotten to a few of them, so I'm not sure if that was where legs used to be attached, or whether they served as gills. It didn't appear to have vision capabilities.  

Take a look at the photos attached to this post.  Do you know what this sea creature is?  And why it has washed ashore en masse, turning Bodega Bay into a sea creature graveyard/seagull feast? 

Take a look