Mystery ‘sea monster’ the size of a truck with long white hair washes up mystifying beachgoers
A MYSTERIOUS sea monster the size of a truck with long white hair has washed up along a coastline, baffling beachgoers who seek to identify it.
Oregon resident Adoni Tegner stumbled upon the large squid-like creature while riding his all-terrain vehicle along a beach near Florence on Wednesday.
When he first laid eyes on the creature, Tegner could not identify it, saying it had a foul odor of a "decomposing mammal," covered in what appeared to be long white hair, and was the size of a pickup truck.
"It just didn't look anything like what I've ever seen," he told KOIN News.
"It looked more stringy, and it almost looked like it had been a large squid or something."
Tegner quickly rushed to bring his girlfriend, Merica Lynn, over to check out the creature, however, she also was clueless about what it was.
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"We've seen whales wash up before, and some that had been stuck on the shore for a few weeks, and never have they grown hair like that," she told KOIN.
Lynn could tell it was the body of something after feeling the creature's texture, which she described as "blubbery" and said it was "firm but squishy".
Her boyfriend was confused by the monster's large white hair-like tendrils, which he knew were attached to it after seeing them move every time a wave hit it.
“If it had been torn apart, it was really odd how the muscle structure broke down and almost made it look like it had some kind of tentacles on it,” Tegner said.
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Tegner said the creature also had "ribs," which he could see under what appeared to be the hair and flesh.
Jim Rice, a stranding program manager with the Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, told KOIN the thing appeared to be the carcass of a whale.
“What looks like hair is the decomposing remains of other body tissues: muscle, nerves, tendons, etc. I would estimate that this one has been dead for several months,” he told the outlet.
Seeking to identify the creature, Lynn uploaded a video on Facebook to ask if anyone knew what it was.
Many people in the comment section claimed the thing was a "globster," a large decomposing marine animal that had previously washed ashore and appeared to be covered in fur.
A similar creature washed up on a beach in the Phillippine province of Oriental Mindoro in 2018.
At the time, a fishery law enforcement official told The Sun that the carcass was likely that of a whale.
"For now, we can say it's a while, but the exact species is still unknown," Fishery Law Enforcement Officer Vox Krusada said at the time, adding that tissue samples were sent to a lab for DNA analysis.
''The local government of Gloria will now bury the carcass. And damn, it smells awful. It smells like something from another planet," said Krusada.
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"I really experienced the full power of its smell because I'm the one who took the tissue samples.
"I almost puked. I felt better after taking a bath, but the stench still lingers in my nose."