Help with ID - Strange creature while clamming (PHOTO)

[Arbutis]

I came across this while digging clams the other day. There were many if them. I would dig down below a hole in the sand that a typical steamer clam would make with it's syphon. At first it looked like a sand worm over a foot long. But as I looked closer it was attached at the base to a piece of broken shell - by something that looked like a suction cup.
Then as I was examining it, it shrunk to what you see in the photos... Similar to how the steamer clam syphon shrinks and retracts.
There were many if them. All attached to a dead broken shell piece. It looked a lot like a worm but more like a clam without a shell. Very strange.
Help with ID?

[Gerry Zagorski]

This might help and I know a lot of guys who shore fish in Raritan Bay get what they call Tape worms

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/showthread.php?3610-marine-worms

[Gumada]

Looks to be a species of tube worm. It will have feathers that it deploys at high tide to trap food and retrieve it into its mouth.

[bulletbob]

I bet they are good bait...

[ALS Mako]

I second for some sort of tube worm.

[Setthehook]

Looks like a Juvenile Geoduck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoduck

[bulletbob]

Looks like a Juvenile Geoduck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoduck

Thats a Pacific species

[henro]

Looks like a priapulid worm.

[Adrenalinerush]

I don't know but it looks like bait to me!:D

[bulletbob]

Looks like a priapulid worm.

bingo.

.http://palaeos.com/metazoa/ecdysozoa/scalidophora/priapulida.html

weenie worm...

[shrimpman steve]

I don’t know what it is. But I’d wash may hands after I held it:D

[Arbutis]

I was a little afraid of cutting it open for fear of acid blood.

[Chrisper4694]

I don't know but it looks like bait to me!:D

dude, you probably want to cook and eat that thing!