Mysterious white blobs of an unknown substance have been spotted by beachcombers in Newfoundland, causing local officials and residents to investigate the origin of the suspicious slime.
“Somebody or somebodies know where this came from and how it got there … and knows damn well it’s not supposed to be here,” one confused local resident, Stan Tobin, told BBC.
The mystery blobs first started getting spotted early last month along the shores of Placentia Bay, since when Tobin says he’s seen “hundreds and hundreds of globs, big globs, little globs.”
Most are around 6 inches in diameter and look doughy, “like someone had tried to bake bread and done a lousy job,” Tobin told the British broadcaster.
Locals have posted photos of the mystery substance online, with people guessing that it could be everything from fungus, to mold and palm oil.
But even Canadian officials are puzzled.
An investigation proved that the mystery substance was not petroleum hydrocarbon, petroleum lubricant, biofuel or biodiesel, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada told the Globe and Mail.
A marine ecologist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada also told the outlet that the blobs were not sea sponges and contained no biological materials.
When Tobin called the Canadian Coast Guard about his findings, they told him they had already ruled out his potential theories about what the blobs were—such as styrofoam— leaving the cold case of where the blobs came from, open.
