A bizarre faceless white blob that "wobbled a bit like a big, fat jelly" has been found by a dog walker on a UK beach which has left experts puzzled.
Helen Marlow, 50, spotted the strange object on Marazion beach while holidaying with her husband in Cornwall.
“I was walking my dog along the beach when I spotted an unusually large, white object on the sand," she said.
“It appeared to be a white, fleshy-looking substance. It had no definite features such as limbs but appeared to be one mass. I couldn't bring myself to touch it but I did try to move it with my boot and as I did so it wobbled a bit like a big, fat jelly!
“Seaweed was wrapped around it. So was – what I assumed to be – a long piece of white rope, slightly frayed in places.”
She continued: “I felt really curious and baffled as to what it was exactly.
“I just couldn't recognise it or compare it to anything I had seen before. All I could be sure of was that it was definitely organic matter and I assumed it had come from the sea.
“I had absolutely no idea what it was.”
The blob was an estimated one-and-a-half metres across, and some 30 to 40cm thick.
It didn’t smell, nor did it show any obvious signs of damage.
Looking for answers, Helen took some advice from her husband and shared her photos with a marine study group on Facebook.
Some people said it was a whale placenta, others that it was a stomach or intestines, while some even said it was a weather balloon.
But even the experts can’t say for sure.
Rob Deaville, project manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, said: “It’s difficult to say from these images alone.
“In my opinion, they look like the fragmentary remains of stomachs or an intestinal tract. The species – and even the broad taxonomic group – is not clear unfortunately.
“Maybe it’s a large cetacean species, or possibly a basking shark; but I know the latter is perhaps less likely given the time of year. But we do routinely receive reports of fragmentary remains of animals during each year.”
Mrs Marlow, from Stockport, is still eager to find out what exactly she found.
She said: “I feel honoured to have seen this creature and really keen to discover its origin and species.”
