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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Nathan Bevan

Welsh beach covered in 'weird white brains' leaves people baffled

We're forever getting weird and wonderful things washing up on our beaches in Wales, many of which wouldn't look out of place in a sci-fi movie. Take the large clumps of rare goose neck barnacles that turned up on the shores of Pembrokeshire last year, for example.

Considered a delicacy in some European countries, their long, pink, worm-like tentacles probably still seemed more extra-terrestrial than tasty to most of us here. Now another bizarre bounty has been swept up onto our sands.

Described by witnesses as resembling a "long line of brains," the strange sighting took place on Anglesey last week. Spotted at Traeth Mawr in Aberffraw by a couple from Beaumaris, who were out walking their dogs, the lumps of unidentified white matter had both of them scratching their heads. You can get more local news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.

READ MORE: The mysterious creatures which have been found washed up on a Welsh beach

However, after posting a pic of their find on social media, people soon started weighing in with the opinions about what the 'brains' could be. Posting their theories on Facebook, some speculated that it was just shapes formed by sea foam.

But, according to NorthWalesLive, the most popular suggestion was that the mass could be whelk egg capsules. The common whelk is the largest sea snail found in UK seas and the dry balls of empty whelk capsules are often found washed up in line-like formations.

According to The Wildlife Trust, whelk live on sandy seabeds below the low tide mark and lay their eggs in a spongy mass of up to 2,000 egg capsules on the seabed. Once hatched, these balls of empty egg capsules often wash up on shore.

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