What the hell is this thing? Photo: Facebook/The Municipal Office of Cagdianao
A massive white hairy blob washed up on a beach in the Dinagat Islands of the Philippines earlier this week, and no one is quite certain what it is. It’s two tons, about 20 feet long, and it’s meaty. By that I mean, it’s almost certainly an animal. Or it was…
Photos of the huge hairy meat blob that kind of looks like a shaggy dog or a soggy mop (get your mind out of the gutter, we’re talking about marine biology here!) have gone viral over the last few days.
Of course, no one has been able to identify exactly what this thing is (er, was). But scientists are confident that the white tendrils, giving it the stomach-churning hairy look, are probably muscle fibers. Very decomposed muscle fibers. Local officials hypothesize it’s a whale carcass, which will likely disappoint any rogue Captain Ahab wannabes out there still on the hunt for a monstrous white cetacean. These guys found it and it’s gross.
Barf party aside, the appearance of these remains is stoking fears among the superstitious. The remains washed up in the wake of a powerful 6.7 earthquake that shook the Philippines earlier this month, leading some to wonder if the tremor popped the top off one of Poseidon’s deep sea carcass lockers.
But what’s actually bothering people the most is the link between similar wash ups and seismic activity in local folklore. According to Filipino myth, oarfish beach themselves before earthquakes. There was an oarfish that washed up just a few days before the quake that struck Mindanao Island earlier this month. For perspective, these guys typically reside between 200 to 1,000 feet below sea level. And while the white meat monster is most certainly not an oarfish, its appearance isn’t exactly calming to those who think another quake is looming.
