From almost perfect geometrical formations to a giant, strange-looking fish, here are
the 10 most unusual shoreline discoveries.
Number 10 Snowballs Thousands of perfectly formed snowballs appeared
on a Siberian beach, in 2016.
Much to their surprise, villagers near the Gulf of Ob found the frozen spheres along
an 11-mile strip of the beach.
Their size ranged from about that of a tennis ball to nearly 3 feet across.
They were formed as the result of a rare natural phenomenon.
It was a combination of temperature, the shape of the coastline and consistent winds.
It’s similar to what you’d do when rolling a snowball through the snow to create a bigger
one.
As the tides receded, ice along the shore rolled through the sand to create the perfect
orbs.
Number 9 Robot Hand Throughout the years, there’ve been many
bizarre items found on the shores of New York City.
While many seem to echo the city’s past, others seem to be reflective of its future.
Such was the case of this recent odd discovery, a partially complete robot hand.
While context would definitely be welcomed in this case, not much information is available
about it.
The mysterious mechanical hand was found at Great Kills Park beach, in Staten Island and
featured two articulated fingers.
Strange as that might have been, it wasn’t the oddest thing found in New York Harbor.
Before we move on, it’s time for our quiz question.
Which of these animals was found off the coast of Brooklyn?
Was it: a.
Polar Bear b.
Grizzly Bear c.
Giraffe d.
Rhino Let us know what you think in the comments
section below and stay tuned to find out the right answer.
Number 8 Tropical Sea Pickles Pyrosoma atlanticum, or sea pickles, are a
type of free-floating colony of numerous tiny organisms called zooids.
Also known as pyrosomes, they usually live in warm, tropical waters but, in 2014, they
started appearing on the coastal north-west of the United States.
Then, in 2017, beachgoers were stunned as millions of these pink invertebrates washed
up on Oregon shores.
Their sudden appearance may indicate they’re far more capable of adapting to colder waters
than previously thought.
That’s bad news for commercial fisheries operating in the area.
While harmless on land, these sea creatures can form high density-blooms that get caught
in nets or fishing hooks and are notoriously difficult to remove.
If these large concentrations experience a mass die-off, they can also cause a dead zone
in the water.
Their decomposing cells suck the oxygen out of water, killing other creatures on the ocean
floor or forcing them in areas they’re not accustomed to.
Number 7 Frozen Turtles While it isn’t unusual for turtles to wash
up on the shores of New England, the 2018 season saw a dramatic increase.
In less than a week around Thanksgiving, close to 200 turtles were found on the Cape Cod
shoreline.
Most were the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the rarest sea turtle species.
Fortunately, wildlife volunteers reacted quickly and some of the turtles were saved.
They were, what rescuers call, “cold snap stranded”.
This means that their bodies, caught in the sudden cold, had slowed down to the point
that the turtles were no longer eating or swimming and simply washed ashore with the
tide.
With proper intervention, about 50 of them were saved in rehabilitation centers.
Yet, many of them were frozen solid.
The varied positions of their fins, as if they were swimming, suggested they’d been
flash-frozen.
Only one survived out of the 82 turtles that were frozen.
Rising temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have led to turtles nesting there, ever since 2010.
Normally, as the water turns cold, they start to migrate south.
The unseasonably cold snap of 2018, meant that hundreds were caught in the rapidly cooling
waters, before they could leave.
Number 6 Garfield Phones During the 1980s a company created novelty
Garfield phones, based on the popular cartoon icon.
Designed during a time when the land line was the norm, the phones were eventually discontinued.
Yet, in the decades that followed, Garfield phones have been sporadically turning up on
the shorelines of western France.
Up until 2019, nobody knew where they kept coming from.
They even became a symbol of plastic pollution in the area.
The environmentalist campaign generated some media coverage that reached a local farmer
named Rene Morvan.
He remembered that, in his 20s, he and his brothers found several Garfield phones in
a cave, after a storm.
He pointed the environmentalists in the right direction and they found the source of the
notorious pollutants.
Trapped underneath the rocks, they discovered a destroyed container which most likely got
lost at sea in the storm.
Unfortunately, removing the container is considered almost impossible.
This means that the pollutants will probably keep washing up on French beaches for some
years to come.
Number 5 Swivel Gun Finding a swivel gun on a beach would have
been commonplace a few hundred years ago, but in the 21st century, it’s a remarkable
find.
The swivel gun found by 13-year-old Christopher Doukas was a discovery that had the potential
of re-writing history.
The Australian boy stumbled upon the bronze cannon at Dundee Beach, in 2010.
Scientists subsequently determined that it had been lying at the bottom of the sea for
over 250 years.
This means that others had made contact with Australian shores prior to Captain Cook, in
1770.
According to Australian scientist Tim Stone “The cannon is one of the most significant
historical artefacts ever found in Northern Australia.”
Number 4 Giant Tree While finding driftwood washed ashore isn’t
that unusual, the sheer size of the discovery on La Push beach warrants inclusion on our
list.
The western Washington community is surrounded by the Olympic National Park.
Sometimes, the combination of strong winds and high tides bring large drift logs ashore.
Yet, a drift log the size of the one found in 2010 is quite unusual.
A woman named Amanda Lachman took a picture with the arboreal monster, which went viral.
The log wasn’t officially measured but Lachman, who’s about 6 feet tall, seemed minuscule
standing next to it.
So which animal was found off the coast of Brooklyn?
If you chose c, giraffe, then you’re right.
As reported in an issue of the New York Times, from the 1980s, the Army Corps of Engineers
found the corpse of a giraffe in Lower New York Bay.
Not much else is known about the story.
It’s been theorized that, several years prior to its discovery, the long-necked animal
might have escaped from a circus or fallen into the water during transportation.
Number 3 Ice Tsunamis An ice tsunami might sound like a devastating
natural phenomenon, but that generally isn’t true.
Also known as ice shoves, they sometimes occur on beaches, particularly in North America.
During springtime, the ice that covers large bodies of water begins to crack but it doesn’t
completely melt.
Strong, sustained winds then take the large ice sheets towards the shores.
The less resistance the shoreline offers, the more ice will be pushed inland.
While far from the force of an actual tsunami, ice shoves can be quite destructive in their
own right.
As recently as April, 2019, along the shores of Lake Eerie, ice walls were as high as 30
feet.
In one New York State lakeside community, the ice crashed into residential properties
and a voluntary evacuation notice was issued.
Number 2 Feet Since late August, 2007, at least 20 detached
human feet have been washing up on coastal islands of British Columbia and other shorelines
in Canada as well as on the coast of Washington, in the US.
The gruesome finds are shrouded in mystery, particularly since no other body parts have
turned up.
Foul play hasn’t been ruled out, although the detached limbs didn’t present any signs
that tools had been used on them.
That being said, the bodies could have been weighed down and the ankle, which is naturally
weak, might have separated due to decomposition.
Most of the feet were found in sneakers.
It’s believed the air trapped inside the sneakers is what enabled them to stay afloat.
Ocean currents could have carried them for over 1,000 miles, so their point of origin
is hard to trace.
Theories about their origin don’t typically involve some sinister execution.
Three of them have been identified as belonging to people who’d committed suicide.
Other proposed explanations have included victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami as well
as plane crash victims.
Number 1 Giant Sunfish In 2019, fishers from South Australia made
a fascinating discovery at the mouth of the Murray River.
From a distance, the men thought they’d stumbled upon a weird-looking piece of shipwreck.
Upon closer inspection, they realized it was actually a dead sunfish.
The fishers took some pictures with it, which subsequently gained a lot of attention online.
As one of them put it “I think a lot of people thought it was fake”.
It’s an understandable reaction, especially when considering the fish’s size and unusual
appearance.
Its laterally-flattened body basically looks like a giant fish head, with fins and a tail.
One of the heaviest bony fishes in the world, adult sunfish can weigh up to a staggering
5,000 pounds.
Even though it was quite large when compared to them, the specimen found by the fishers
was considered medium-sized.
Sunfish are docile and don’t pose a predatory threat to human divers.
However, boats and yachts may sustain damage if they collide with them in open water.
Thank you for watching!
Which do you think was the strangest discovery on our list?
Let us know in the comments section below!