Quick question; aside from washboard abs and skimpy bikinis, what are some things
you can find on the beach? Boats, surfboards, some nice seashells,
perhaps even a message in a bottle! What about a tree, a cannonball or even a piano!
Believe it or not, these are just some of the weirdest stuff people discovered
lying by the shore! Let’s investigate the 10 Strangest Things Washed Up on Beaches!
What's up, fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the most outrageous,
outlandish, and out-of-this-world fun facts! Stay tuned because our one number pick
is so bizarre and random, no one could make this stuff up!
Surf’s up ‘coz it’s time to catch some waves!
#10. Giant Tree It’s not uncommon to find
driftwood washed ashore. But a gigantic drift log? How did it even get there?
In April of 2010, a strong gale blew through the small community of La Push in Washington,
that toppled a number of trees from the nearby Olympic National Park in the Canadian border.
When the dust settled—or the sand rather—dozens of driftwood ended up in the middle of the beach,
but one of them stuck out like a sore thumb; this ginormous western red cedar log that’s estimated
to be 200 feet long and 13 feet in diameter! Good luck playing fetch with that piece of wood!
Keep watching to find out the number one bizarre item that left people scratching their heads!
#9. Harley by the Sea Would you believe that this Harley-Davidson
motorcycle found in British Columbia was swept out to sea all the way from Japan?
In April 2012, a resident named Peter Mark discovered the rusty motorbike inside a
Styrofoam-lined shipping container along the coast of Haida Gwai. With the help of the license
plate on the motorbike, Mark was able to track down its original owner—a 29-year-old Japanese
man named Ikuo Yokoyama from Honshu Island. Apparently, the Harley got swept away during the
great tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, which took the lives of nearly 20,000 people.
The tsunami was caused by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake, and resulted in 5 million tons
of debris getting swept into the Pacific ocean. The said motorbike is now on display at the
Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee as a stark tribute to the victims of one of Japan’s deadliest tragedies.
Davidson: The bike is amazing because it’s continually changing. Sea salt has actually
penetrated the molecular structure of the materials so it continues to deteriorate.
#8: Giant Eyeball When you’re out on the beach flaunting
your hard-earned body, expect the uncomfortable gazes and ogles from some annoying beach bums.
But imagine attracting this kind of eyeball! The giant softball-sized peeper was found by.
Beachcomber washed up on Pompano Beach, Florida in 2012. Instead of keeping it to himself,
the kind citizen turned over the mysterious orb to authorities for investigation.
Initially, researchers thought it was the eye of a giant squid. However,
some bones were found around the eyeball which wasn’t characteristic of a squid. Soon after,
the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed—without
an ink-ling of a doubt—that the eye once belonged to a swordfish.
#7. Civil War Cannonballs Yup, these artifacts that
surfaced on Folly Beach in South Carolina are actual unexploded ammunition! Yikes!
Luckily, the man who found them was former Folly Beach mayor Richard Beck,
who was inspecting the shore at the time to assess hurricane Matthew’s impact in 2016.
His trained eyes immediately spotted the distinct holes that reminded him of Civil War cannonballs.
Around 15 of them were found welded together by rust. When Beck reported it to authorities,
local officials immediately sent a bomb squad to respond to the area.
But it wasn’t the only time cannonballs were discovered in Folly Beach. Fast forward to
2019 and a couple named Aaron Lattin and Alba Ospina found two similar artifacts which they
first thought to be rocks swept away by Hurricane Dorian! They even touched the cannonballs and dug
around it! Just imagine if those ammo were live! Aaron: I wanted to get like a metal
detector and especially after the hurricane, come out here and see if any
history or artifacts got washed up on the shore. Well, the certainly had a blast while it lasted.
#6: Garfield Phones Since the 1980s, beachgoers at
the Iroise coast in France have been dumbfounded at the frequent reappearance of Garfield novelty
phones in the area. As in dozens of them! Anti-littering campaigners have long suspected
that they came for a lost shipping container, but they never got to confirm their hunch.
Until in 2019, the mystery of the landline fragments was finally solved,
when volunteers and journalists located a shipping container in a secluded sea cave that held a stock
of the old school phones. However, the container remains inaccessible and the Garfield phones might
continue to get washed ashore until they figure out how to retrieve the container.
#5: Blue Sailors This literally looks like a scene
from an apocalypse movie. But it’s 100% real! In 2014, thousands upon thousands of dead
jellyfish-like sea creatures called Velella velella, or more commonly known as “by-the-wind
sailors” littered the North Olympic Peninsula in Washington like deflated blue balloons.
These jellies usually float on the surface, making them vulnerable to getting swept away by
strong currents and pushed towards shore. But researchers say this phenomenon isn’t really
unusual, as it could happen every 3 to 6 years. But fight the urge to touch these translucent
creatures when you see them, because being relatives of the jellyfish, they can also sting!
#4: Prehistoric Tooth 5-year-old kid Brantley Griffin was only
looking for some jellyfish when he and his parents went out for a walk along North Myrtle Beach in
June 2020. But instead, he found this curious looking object that he initially thought to be an
ordinary shell. But, oh boy, was he ever wrong! Thankfully, his parents didn’t throw it back at
sea because what little Brantley was holding in his hands turned out to be a tooth of a megalodon!
Yes, the prehistoric shark that went extinct millions of years ago! The kid is
literally holding a piece of ancient history! But apparently, the Carolina coast has become
well-known for spotting one of these prehistoric teeth, and a piece of it that’s more than six
inches can actually fetch thousands of dollars! That’s a lot of dough from the tooth fairy!
#3. Giant Lego Man
Ever since this gigantic 8-foot tall Lego man mysteriously appeared
on the Florida coast in 2011, it has become an unlikely tourist attraction in Siesta Key.
The fiberglass sculpture--which had the phrase “no real than you are” emblazoned in front, and
the name Ego Leonard and a number 8 printed on its back—was not exactly made by the Lego company, but
is believed to be the work of an anonymous Dutch guerrilla artist. And this one found in Siesta
was apparently just one of a number of other giant Lego figures found in beaches all over the world!
One was discovered off Brighton Beach in the UK in October 2008, and another Lego sculpture made
its way mysteriously at the Topanga beach in LA County in July of 2012. But wait, there’s more!
In December 2014, another one was washed up on Yugaihama Beach in Japan,
and yet another was found floating on the Danube river in Linz, Austria in June of 2015!
Is this a toy zombie invasion? Lego Batman, we need you!
#2: Dinosaur Bone It’s hard to believe
that dinosaurs once walked the land we know to be Washington state today. But with the
discovery of this ancient relic, that might just be exactly what happened 80 million years ago.
In April 2012, because the weirdest things suddenly pop out of nowhere in the waters
of Washington, researchers discovered a fossilized bone embedded in a marine rock.
For about a year and a half, palaeontologists prepared the fossil and removed all the debris,
until they saw tell-tale signs that the bone was half of the left thigh bone
of a therapod dinosaur that lived 80 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
In case you missed it during history class,
therapods are bipedal dinosaurs just like the T. Rex.
Scientist: The really great thing about this fossil, like I said,
is that it’s Washington’s first dinosaur. This fossil makes Washington the 37th state
to have a dinosaur. So the other 13, those that don’t have dinosaurs, it’s actually pretty
unlikely that they ever will find them. Okay Washington, you win this round.
Before we go to our number 1 pick, do us a solid
and make sure to smash the subscribe button and hit the notification bell!
Don’t forget to choose “all” so you won’t miss out on any of our latest life-changing,
boredom-busting content! And of course, be sure to turn on notifications in your app’s settings.
#1: Two-headed Dolphin If I were in the shoes of the tourist
who discovered the body of this bizarre marine mammal, I would’ve probably flipped out in horror!
In August of 2014, a tourist stumbled upon the carcass of a two-headed dolphin on the
beach of Izmir in Turkey. It might as well be called the “unicorn of the sea” because
only five cases of such conjoined dolphins have ever been recorded!
This phenomenon is so rare among wild mammals that scientists don’t even know the reasons
for the mutation to this day. So, do you have your own strange
discoveries during your last beach trip? Share them in the comments section below!
Take home any of our exclusive gear by browsing our merch shelf, or clicking the link in the video
description! And while you’re at it, take our quiz to find out how you can earn extra cash online
doing what you do best! Awesome, right! Craving for more aquatic curiosities?
Then don’t miss our ranking of 10 Horrifying Mysterious Lakes in the World!
‘Til then, stay adventurous, fact-natics! And see you in the next video!