Newfoundland’s shores have become the site of some unsightly flotsam in recent days — hundreds of pale, doughy blobs of an unknown material that has been compared to waterlogged Styrofoam, poorly baked bread and even “toutons,” a local dish consisting of leftover dough fried in pork fat.
International media has taken note, with stories of the weird objects popping up in the New York Post, Britain’s Guardian newspaper and elsewhere. The only problem is that no one seems to know what they are.
The weird, fleshy objects were first noticed by local beachcombers along the shores of Placentia Bay in the southeast part of the province last month, with pictures being posted to a 40,000-member Facebook group mostly dedicated to sea glass.
“Anyone know what these blobs are,” wrote Philip Grace on Sept. 8. “They are like touton dough and all over the beach.”
There have been no end of hypthoses however — some serious, some comical. On the serious side, some have speculated that the material was fungus or mold, palm oil, paraffin wax or even ambergris, a rare and valuable substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales, and used in the perfume industry.
Others have suggested other whale-based products, including comments in the Facebook group that they could be “whale boogers,” “whale sperm” or “whale barf” — all of which have been ruled out, by the way.
A spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada told the BBC that they will need to make an additional analysis to determine what the substance is and its potential impact. Government officials have visited the site three times to survey the substance, the agency added.
The gooey shapes aren’t the first or even the biggest blobs to wash ashore and cause consternation in Canada’s easternmost province. Back in 2001, nearby Fortune Bay became the landing place for the Fortune Bay “Blobster,” a so-called sea monster that was eventually identified, through DNA testing, as the remains of a sperm whale.
These smaller blobs — ranging in size from toonie to dinner plate — are proving more difficult to identify, however. The Guardian reports that federal scientists have been on the case but have produced few leads. So far, they know it’s not a petroleum hydrocarbon, a petroleum lubricant or a biofuel, but they said a full battery of tests could take months.
One of the more unorthodox tests suggested by a Facebook commentator: “(Fry) it up put some molasses on it , let us know how it was.”
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