What the Heck Is This Hairy 'Sea Monster'?

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Sea monster in Philippines
This hairy sea monster may, in fact, be a decaying whale. (Image credit: ViralPress)

It came from the depths of the ocean and has since mystified onlookers: the decaying, truck-size body of a hairy sea monster.

What it is, no one can yet say. But the beast, which washed ashore on a beach in the Philippine province of Oriental Mindoro on May 11, is likely the remains of a whale, fishery law enforcement officer Vox Krusada told The Sun. However, DNA testing is needed to pinpoint the exact species, Krusada said. [13 Bizarre Things That Washed Up on Beaches]

Until the species is officially identified, people are calling the 20-foot-long (6 meters), grayish and white carcass the "globster." And, like any rotting corpse, it smells terrible. 

"I really experienced the full power of its smell because I'm the one who took the tissue samples," Krusada told The Sun. "I almost puked. I felt better after taking a bath, but the stench still lingers in my nose."

People used rope to pull the mysterious blob onto the beach. (Image credit: ViralPress)

The globster is about 4 feet (1.2 m) wide at one end and about 2 feet (0.6 m) wide at the other, The Sun reported. Passersby posted a video of it on YouTube before the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources disposed of the animal, The Sun noted. 

This is hardly the first mysterious monster that's washed ashore in the Philippines. In February 2017, the decaying, blobby body of another 20-foot-long marine creature washed ashore in the Dinagat Islands (part of the Philippines), The Sun reported. A later investigation revealed that the roughly 4,400-lb. (2,000 kilograms) animal was a whale.

Like the newfound specimen, last year's discovery also had hair-like strands coming off its body. These features are likely decomposed muscle fibers, National Geographic reported.

The strands on the mysterious creature's body may be decomposed muscle fibers. (Image credit: ViralPress)

National Geographic also posted a video (see below) of yet another so-called sea monster that washed ashore on the Indonesian island of Seram in May 2017. This bizarre, 49-foot-long (15 m) creature was definitely a baleen whale — possibly a Bryde's whale, blue whale or fin whale, Live Science previously reported.

It's not uncommon for whale remains to mystify the public. Earlier this year, whale watchers boating off the coast of Hawaii saw a goopy mass that turned out to be a humpback whale placenta, Live Science previously reported. 

Original article on Live Science.

Laura Geggel
Laura Geggel
Managing Editor

Laura is the managing editor at Live Science. She also runs the archaeology section and the Life's Little Mysteries series. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science writing from NYU.