What The Fresh Hell Is This Gigantic Furry Blob?

As is well known by now, the dark and scary sea is full of absolutely bizarre, unusual things. On occasion because the creature faces a bit of vertical exploration near the shoreline, or just because it’s died, some of these unusual lumps of matter float up to the surface and say hello in their own novel way.

This week’s edition of “what the hell is that thing” comes courtesy of the beaches of Cagdainao, part of the Philippines’ Dinagat Islands.

The enigmatic white lump is smelly, hairy, about 6 meters (20 feet) in length, weighs 2 tonnes (2.2 tons), and has no eyes or discernable head. It actually appears to be part of a troupe of trophic travesties washing up on beaches in the region recently after a spate of (perhaps unrelated) earthquakes.

As you’d expect, plenty of suggestions have popped up online as to what it might be. These attempts at identification range from fictional animated characters brought into the real world through some sort of magic to a gigantic, dead Shih Tzu dog. Someone has even (playfully?) suggested it is a twisted blob of plastic bags that was once plugging up an underwater volcano. (Hint – it is not.)

Scientists, always wanting to spoil everyone’s fun, have actually said it’s a decomposing whale that died about a fortnight ago. All that white fluff is a result of it being in an advanced stage of decomposition, with the apparent hair actually being exposed, rotting muscle fibers.

So, to recap: It’s not aliens, not a mythical creature, nor a giant floofy dog monster. It’s a dead whale. Again.

[H/T: BBC News]