What monsters might call the deep ocean home? There’s no telling but here are 8 of the strangest carcasses to wash up on our beaches.
The Montauk Monster
Let’s start with the smallest. In 2008, a strange carcass washed up on a beach in New York. Somebody saw it and took a picture. Before you know it, the Montauk Monster was famous.
The bloated creature appeared to have the body of a mammal and the head of a bird. It lacked an upper jaw and hair, which made identifying it very difficult. While some biologists speculated that it might have been a raccoon, others refuted this claim by pointing out that a raccoon has much shorter legs. Some went as far as suggesting the creature was a genetically modified specimen that had escaped from Montauk Air Force Station, adding to the mystery surrounding the facility.
Nobody knows what became of the remains.
Bermuda Blob
This weird globster was found on a beach in Bermuda by a fisherman named Ted Tucker. It struck him as being incredibly white and lacking eyes, a mouth or any other discernible feature.
For seven years, nobody could explain what the blob was. The case was closed in 1995, when genetic analysis showed the Bermuda Blob was actually the remains of a diseased whale.
The Tasmanian Sea Monster
A beach in western Tasmania witnessed a strange occurrence in August 1960, when a giant gelatinous mass washed ashore. It measured 20 by 18 feet and weight anywhere from 5 to 10 tons. Media outlets did a good job in publicizing the event and multiple explanations were forwarded.
Some believed it was a previously unknown organism. At the time, it was virtually impossible to determine its origins. Like the Bermuda creature, this one lacked eyes and a mouth and had no bone structure. Unlike it, the Tasmanian blob was covered in white hairs.
Turns out it was just another badly decomposed whale.
St. Augustine Monster
One of the earliest reported cases and perhaps the most well-known globster-type cryptid, the St. Augustine monster was discovered by chance in 1896. Two boys who were riding their bicycles near St. Augustine, Florida stumbled upon a giant mass, half-buried in the sand after sinking under its own weight.
They reported their find to a local physician and before long, newspapers featured headlines about the sensational find. At first, it was believed the monster was a decomposed giant octopus.
At the time, such a beast was considered nothing more than a fisherman’s tale so you can imagine this discovery made some waves. The giant octopus theory was supported by what appeared to be seven long tentacles attached to the pale pink blob. It also appeared to have a head shaped like a sea lion’s and a mouth located on its underside.
In 1995, the century-old enigma was cracked: another whale carcass.
Trunko
To this day, nobody knows what this sea monster was. First spotted off the coast of Margate in South Africa, this cryptid was engaged in a battle with two killer whales at the time. Exhausted by the fight, the giant creature washed up on the shore, where it was visible for ten days, before being claimed back by the sea.
It was described as being 47 feet (14 meters) long, 10 feet (3 meters) wide and 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall. Its name was given by a strange appendage resembling an elephant’s trunk. According to reports, it was covered with a snow-white fur and had a lobster-like tail.
This is the only globster reported as being alive when it beached and remains unidentified to this day.
Stronsay Beast
In 1808, following a storm on Stronsay Island in Scotland, locals found a strange animal that had washed up on a beach. Initial reports show that the creature measured 55 feet (17 meters) in length and might have been even longer when alive since part of its tail was missing.
Eyewitnesses claimed it had three pairs of paws or fins and a mane of bristles down its back. Allegedly, the bristles glowed in the dark when wet. When they cut it open, the locals found its stomach contents were red.
Its description closely matches that of the Monster of Loch Ness or any other sea serpent for that matter.
All attempts to classify it failed and at the time, it was listed as a sea serpent.
Two centuries later, we have no idea what the creature really was.
The Chilean Blob
A massive globster weighing 13 tons and measuring 40 feet across was discovered on a beach in Los Muermos, Chile, in the summer of 2003. News spread fast and soon enough, news agencies from all around the world contributed to the fame of the Chilean Blob.
At first, scientists were unable to determine what it was but speculated that it could be the remains of an unknown species of giant octopus.
DNA tests later revealed the gelatinous mass was actually badly deteriorated adipose tissue belonging to a sperm whale.
Zuiyo-maru Carcass
The most famous and controversial globster deserves the #1 spot on our list. It’s easy to see how the Zuiyo-maru carcass caused worldwide excitement; even a toddler with a soft spot for ancient reptiles can see the resemblance it bears to a plesiosaur.
It was caught in the net of the Zuiyō Maru, a Japanese trawler fishing off the coast of New Zealand in 1977 and its crew quickly labeled it Nyū Nesshii – ‘New Nessie’. Fearing it might spoil their fish, the captain unfortunately resolved to throw the carcass back into the ocean, but not before taking a few samples of bone and tissue and snapping several photos.
New Nessie weighed almost two tons and measured around 32 feet (10 meters) in length. It had four large fins, a long neck and tail but lacked a dorsal fin and internal organs.
Their discovery generated a veritable ‘plesiosaur craze’ in Japan and the fishing company dispatched all of its vessels in search of the carcass but despite the effort, they were unable to relocate it.
Not everyone was convinced the Zuiyo-maru carcass belonged to a creature that had been officially extinct for 66 million years. Most skeptics claimed New Nessie was in fact the remains of a basking shark and cited the fact that during the early stages of decomposition, this shark loses its lower jaw as well as its dorsal and tail fin.
Others, such as Dr. Fujiro Yasuda from the University of Marine Science and Technology in Tokyo are adamant that “the photographs show the remains of a prehistoric animal.”
In absence of decisive evidence, the true nature of New Nessie remains a question of belief.
LOCKLIP
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