A man was left baffled as his mystery discovery on a beach left his dog 'bright orange'. Ian Carmichael issued a warning to dog walkers to avoid the object which washed up ashore, reports North Wales Online.
The pet owner found the strange looking item washed up on a Welsh beach last month. He says he discovered another piece of it on the same Anglesey beach on New Year's Eve.
Ian said: "No idea what this is - washed up on Porth-y-post beach this morning.. but the dog ran straight to it and rubbed herself on it leaving her bright orange! Dog walkers beware!"
The tweet from the dog walker sparked a flurry of conversation on social media with people theorising what the object could be. Many people came to the conclusion that the mystery object was palm oil.
One person said: "Bath your dog and contact the vet as its palm oil and very toxic to dogs"
Another added: "We’ve gone and picked loads of this up off Porth Y Post and think it’s palm oil. Too much of it scattered about to be ambergris but we will test it.
"Currently in the blue bin." And a third agreed: "Palm oil, yes.
"Your dog mustn’t lick it or eat it! Very dangerous to dogs!"
Ian says he reported the initial debris he found to the coastguard and it was almost all gone the following day. But despite that he found that yet another piece of the debris had been washed up on the same Porth-y-Post beach on New Year's Eve.
Frankie Hobro, director of Anglesey Sea Zoo, confirmed it was palm oil. She said: "This is a palm oil berg and it is common for large numbers of them to be washed up on beaches in the same area at the same time as they are produced by a ship washing out its ballast tank.
"The resulting oil bergs get carried off to shore and wash up on beaches, so large numbers of these could appear anywhere along the North Wales coast over the next week or so.
Ms Hobro urged dog walkers to look out for them as any contact with them can be extremely hazardous. She said: "Palm oil is a useful cleaning agent, so it is used by large ships to clean out their fuel tanks at sea.
"Unbelievably, it is perfectly legal for ships to dump palm oil into the ocean when they swill out their holds anywhere in the world, as long as they are at least 12 miles offshore! And the result is oil bergs like this one washing up on beaches.
"The colour varies and so does the size and shape - they can weigh up to a quarter of a tonne! Due to their high bacterial loading and smell, dogs find them extremely interesting and are immediately attracted to them, which is what happened to the dog owner who posted this photograph."
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