The ocean hides many secrets not only because it is under-researched but also because it washes things up on beaches that we never expect to see.
It’s not always seashells and starfish! Sometimes the ocean washes up the strangest thing you could ever imagine. Stick around as we countdown 15 strangest Things Washed up on Beaches. Get your umbrella, your cooler, and your “Fudgy Wudgy” because it’s time to hit the beach!
Severed Human Hands
A bag filled with 54 severed human hands found dumped near a river in Russia was not the work of criminals, according to police.
Officers in the city of Khabarovsk, in far east Siberia, say the hands were taken from unidentified bodies and stored at a nearby forensic laboratory.
The hands were taken to preserve the fingerprints in case the remains needed to be identified at a later date.
Police said the bag ended up dumped on a small island in the middle of a river after being disposed of in an ‘inappropriate way’.
Officers are now ‘carrying out checks and studying all the circumstances of this event. Russians had previously speculated that a dismembering maniac or an international gang could have been behind the grisly find.
One theory was that the hands were severed from corpses which had been plundered for body parts to hide the identity of victims.
Another was that it could be the work of the Yakuza, a transnational organized crime syndicate originating in Japan, or a Chinese mafia gang.
The island where the hands were discovered was just 19 miles downstream from the point where the Amur forms the frontier with China. Others saw the work of a new maniac dismembering his victims.
Following the police announcement, many reacted with disbelief on social media, with some smelling a cover-up.
Some asked why fingerprints could not be taken and stored on electronic databases rather than preserving entire hands. Another person found it bizarre the police were stating the hands had nothing to do with anything criminal.
WHALE VOMIT
Ken Wilman’s dog Madge noticed the smelly yellow lump of something on the beach in Lancashire first. Initially, Willman had no interest in it.
It smelled horrible. It looked like poop and there was nothing interesting about it. He left it, came back home and looked it up on the internet.
When he saw how much it could be worth, he went back and grabbed it. Again, the effect money has on people is undeniable.
Money just makes the world go round and round. This guy had stumbled upon a 6-pound pile of “whale vomit,” worth up to $180,000. Okay, okay, maybe I would have gone back myself.
That’s a lot of freaking money! The waxy substance is produced in the intestines of sperm whales to protect their digestive tracts from sharp squid beaks.
Despite its nickname, it’s likely excreted, rather than vomited, into the ocean where it floats for untold years before occasionally washing up on shore.
So why is the whale excrement worth so much? High-end European perfumeries use it as a “fixer” that allows the scents to stay on the skin for much longer. It’s also a historical ingredient in recipes, especially desserts.
