Another 'sea creature': Mysterious headless marine animal washes ashore

I thought this was pretty cool so I decided o share.

link

“It would be nice to see if anyone knows what it is,” says Lovell. “First I thought it was a seal washed up (on the high tide earlier in the day), but when I went down to check on my boat that evening, I walked over to see and then I knew it wasn’t a seal. “But, I don’t know what it is.” Of unknown origin and species, so far, the odd-looking seaside carcass sits high and dry on the low tide, its approximately 15-foot length includes a pointed, 10-foot tail twisted in the sand, conjuring up Loch Ness monsters for some. The animal, bearing a single flipper-like appendage on its right side, appears to have been decapitated and shows other signs of damage.

Another Montauk?

Lets poke it with a stick and see if that helps Its always the right thing to do.

Other than that its hard to tell much from that photo, i guess the obligatory whale/seal blubber can't be ruled out yet.
Not a squid though because

It got hair on it in spots. I couldn’t (determine) what it was.”

I will go with Walrus type thing, not a Montauk no.

Goodness me... Can these pictures get any more vague?
Couldn't they have lifted it onto a table, dusted it off and then photographed it?
It's totally impossible to guess what this could be. It could be any piece of flesh, blubber or skin from any animal larger than a small seal.
Mind you, a simple DNA test would quickly identify exactly which poor Marine animal met it's end out in the depths.

reply to post by genius/idoit


Be interesting to see the outcome ... when they do their tests hopefully they can determine a genus.

Missing head looks like a clean cut

Woody

Is that the only picture they took!? Why does this always happen, just one picture keeping it ambiguous?

So frustrating, but it's hard to pinpoint anything identifiable or distinct from that picture.

Could it possibly be one of those deep underwater creatures that we haven’t been able to set our eyes onto? If it is, then the question is what caused the death/why did it wash ashore? Oh well, lets just hope that we can get bottom of this mystery.

Or maybe, some shark or something ate the head and left the body of this blubber like thing. But that’s highly strange. Nope. No idea here.

reply to post by woodwytch


I agree that doesn't look like a bite wound,it looks severed.

hahaha thats an awesome picture of some dude poking it with a stick. Id guess it is something fairly common, because the first paragraph in the thing says:

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Corner Brook intends to check out the Lower Cove site today....

seems to me the reporter should have waited until after the department checked, but a 'possible' "crazy creature" is far more entertaining news story than an easy explainable carcass.

Long neck,fat body and flippers....

No way... can't be

Aww, the poor thing must have been swimming in circles - only one flipper :p

[edit on 22-2-2010 by 1984hasarrived]

reply to post by 1984hasarrived


That could be difficult with no head

The cut does look very clean though, especially for something washed up. Why do you always get some idiot who can't take a decent photo who finds these things?

Pokes it with a stick Buwahahahaha

OK in all seriousness.

People are morons when it comes to these types of things. Like what has been mentioned previously. Why don't they clean it up and move it around and get multiple pictures instead they make statements of [Strange, Bizarre] creature then they post some vague picture.


You know if it turns out to be something significant. The First reporter who had that opportunity will feel like an idiot for not getting exclusive first solid photographic evidence.

The moral of the story class...


GET multiple pictures from various angles.



[edit on 22-2-2010 by SLAYER69]

Look Like a pre-historic creature,
Loch Ness.

I suspect it is some rather ordinary creature that was killed and mutilated by something akin to the Cloverfield monster, which will be walking onto shore any hour (or day) now...

Did I say suspect? I meant "would like to suggest in jest before someone seriously does."

A truely excellent picture of some dude poking a wierd blob w/ a stick. As for the creature.....

It is a very clean cut. My first thought was a propeller strike (which happens a lot out there). The "body" is odd though, almost porpoise like, but then what's with the tail? It could all be an optical illusion and just be the usual blubber mistaken for a full animal thing. Hoping someone out there has 2 brain cells to rub together and does a real (non-stick mediated) investigation!

From what little I can see there... sort of looks like a seal, missing it's head.
Maybe it got to close to a prop, or was attacked by a shark.

Someone has to take one for the team. It needs to be tasted. No salt or pepper though. Must be plane for a propper taste test.

For me this is not a issue of what it is, but rather why is it there. You are seeing more and more of this type of picture. Where some animal dies then sinks to the bottom head first. Then decomposing enough that the skin slips off the carcass and floats to the top. Could this be a indication of how sick our oceans are? You would think that other animals would be feeding on this. Stopping this from happening. Or is this just a case of people having never seen this and then asking questions?

Firstly, large vertebrates do not tend to live deep in the ocean. Just to clarify.

Secondly, it looks like a pinniped to me based on the flippers. It could be something with a deformity but by looking closely at the picture I think the bit of the "tail" that he's poking with the stick is actually not part of the organism... If you look there's what looks like could be a gap between that and the pinniped-looking bit. I'm going to go ahead and propose that it's the carcass of a hooded seal with ... something else. That's what it looks like to me. It could also be a gray seal. My boss would know but she's off for two weeks.

I think that might be another giant squid, minus some tentacles. We get washed-up squid here all the time. Not unusual.