• For most of us, the weirdest thing we’ll see on the beach is when Grandad drops his
towel.
But what real mysteries have been uncovered in the sands?
Will we ever explain how some of these things got there?
Here’s the fifteen most bizarre discoveries ever made on a beach.
15 – George’s Island • In the 19th century, sailors used to stop
and rest on George’s Island, off the coast of Canada.
• One day in 1876, a ship hit trouble nearby and the crew bailed out and headed for shore.
Only one of the five survived to tell the tale, explaining to the fishermen who found
him that their lifeboat had smashed on the rocks.
• However, a few weeks later, three headless bodies were found near the beach, along with
two empty tents.
A fourth man was discovered later with what looked like axe marks in his skull.
The survivor was never traced.
14 – Gold Nugget • Vincent Thurkettle discovered the biggest
gold nugget ever found in the UK, on the beaches of Wales in 2016
• It’s thought to belong to a haul of about £120 million from a ship called the
Royal Charter that sank in 1859.
• Vincent’s nugget, worth about £50,000 wasn’t exactly an accidental find though;
he’d spent about 6 weeks hunting for seven years in a row so he’s basically earnt an
annual salary.
13 – Whales stranded • When biologist Vreni Haussermann flew
a chartered flight over Patagonia in Chile, she was there to study a variety of life.
What she didn’t expect to find was the largest mass whale death ever seen.
• 337 whales were found washed up in the fjords, with many of them already very decayed
so they’d obviously been there for some time.
• The cause of death is unknown but some other mass whale deaths have been due to a
bloom of toxic microorganisms that can occur naturally in the oceans.
12 – Salish Sea Feet • Another creepy mystery on the Canadian
coast now, and part of the US coast too.
On the beaches of the Salish Sea, almost 20 human feet have been discovered over a period
of ten years.
• For the most part, they are right feet, although a few pairs have been found.
A lot of the feet had decayed in a way that made them very hard to identify but it’s
thought that they are from a variety of sources.
It’s also natural for the feet to detach if a body is in the water for some time.
• Some feet came still in sneakers and are thought to be from victims of the 2004 tsunami,
having washed across the ocean.
Other are from local suicides. 11 – Nuclear waste
• A quiet seaside town on the south coast of the UK was understandably alarmed when
they heard that traces of Strontium 90, a highly radioactive substance, had been found
on the beach.
• Although the levels were well below anything dangerous, it’s not what you want to hear
when you live 3 miles from the Sizewell nuclear power plant.
• The traces could be from the recent shutdown of one of the reactors.
It could also be from some other source, such as the Fukushima or Chernobyl disasters.
10 – Spanish Coins • The Schmitt family are professional treasure
hunters and they finally hit a major payday in 2015 when they found a million dollars’
worth of old Spanish gold coins, just off the beaches of Florida.
• In their haul was 51 coins, 12 metres of gold chain and a specially commissioned
coin made for King Felipe V. • And if you want a bit of booty of your
own, the find is from a whole fleet that went down in 1715 and it’s estimated there’s
still almost half a billion dollars down there.
9 – Oil Tanker • A whole oil tanker washed up on a beach
in Liberia but all of the crew and the life boats had gone.
The ship was registered in Panama but it’s not known what happened to the crew.
• Pirates operate in the area but since oil prices have dropped, these tankers have
become much less of a target.
• It was also speculated that the captain might not have had enough money to pay the
crew so they all just bailed. 8 – Abandoned car
• Police were called in Sydney, Australia when an expensive Maserati was found abandoned
on a popular beach.
• It turns out the owner was just nearby and had got the car, worth around $250,000,
stuck in the sand.
He’d then played some golf and had a swim.
• Police decided he needed to go to a local hospital to get checked out, suspecting that
his comments about a recent break up might mean he was having a small break down.
7 – Cave beach • At the start of the 20th century, the
Mexican government carried out weapons testing on the Marieta islands, off the west coast.
• One bomb test collapsed the rock in a large circle.
This created one of the most unique beaches in the world where there is now a narrow tunnel,
letting in the crystal blue water, and a perfect white sandy beach, hidden in a circle of rock.
• It’s now known as Love Beach and has become a popular tourist hotspot, for anyone
who can get there.
6 – Rubber Ducks • In 1992, a huge shipping crate full of
yellow bath-time rubber ducks, washed overboard somewhere in the Atlantic.
There were 29,000 • While adding more plastic to the ocean
is never a good thing, the ducks have actually proved incredibly useful for science since
they showed us the paths of ocean currents as the ducks ended up washing ashore all over
the world.
• They’ve been found on beaches on the east coast of the US, Chile, the UK, Australia
and Iceland.
• They were so helpful in fact, that scientist were offering $50 for any discovered
5 –Marine massacre • In late 2016, the beaches of Nova Scotia,
Canada, were suddenly filled with beached animals.
There was a huge variety, with everything from seals to lobsters, starfish and a variety
of fish.
• The cause is still unknown but the most likely is some kind of seismic movement that
created an earthquake or released a pocket of poisonous gas.
4 – Long Island Serial Killer • A number of bodies were found in burlap
sacks, along Gilgo Beach in the state of New York, as well as other areas nearby.
• They are believed to be down to a serial killer who mainly targeted sex workers from
the website Craigslist.
This has given the unidentified killer the nickname The Craigslist Ripper, as well as
the Long Island Serial Killer • Ten bodies were found from 2010 and another
6 may also tie in to the case.
3 – Dildos • Martin Kellehe was out walking his dogs
on the seashore in Ireland when he came across 2 dildos.
• However, this wasn’t the first time, he’d also seen some appear the year before.
The small fishing port town seems an unlikely destination for an outdoor sex party.
• Martin said he rang his wife when he found them, but that she told him she wasn’t interested.
2 – Orange goo • In 2011, the shores of Alaska started
turning a very unusual colour.
A mysterious orange goo collected in huge banks on the beaches.
• It was first thought to be the eggs of crustaceans, with the fat inside causing the
orange colour.
• It’s now believed to be a fungus called Rust but analysis has been difficult and it
may be a new species.
1 –Monatuk Monster • One of the creepiest discoveries was at
Montauk, New York in 2008.
A carcass was found, about the size of an average dog, but it didn’t look like any
known animal.
• It was named the Montauk Monster and the only evidence are photographs, the body was
never examined.
• Most experts think it was either a hoax or possible a slightly decomposed racoon.