Clancy Tucker's Blog: June 2017

WEIRD THINGS

WASHED ASHORE

G'day folks,

It is no longer shocking to see strange things wash ashore since this is one thing the world is becoming too familiar with. After all, more than 70% of our planet is covered in water, so on occasion, some rare and weird things will somehow manage to wash up on shores in different locations. In fact, lots of man-made remnants and even some pleasant-looking rare animals have washed up on shores over the years. While this is seen as a big environmental issue, sometimes mind-boggling things wash up with the shambles.

From little-understood sea creatures that you could call marine mysteries, to huge toys and other weird things. And yes, those unexpected things usually gets everybody to scratch their heads in shock. As long as things keep slipping into the waters around the world, and as long as the planet remains surrounded by water, stranger things are bound to float around out there …Perhaps bigger and stranger things than we can think of.

In September 2005, an army of giant squids, weighing as much as 17 pounds, washed up in Newport Beach Calif. The bug-eyed creatures, believed to be Humboldt squid, naturally live in deep waters, so it was hard for locals to come across them both on land and sea. Authorities explained that the squid might have been chasing after bait fish and gotten too close to shore. Other factors, such as warm ocean temperatures or record rainfall were also suspected.

This enormous floating eyeball washed up on the sand in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2012. The softball-sized eyeball was found by a man who was out for a stroll. He kicked the undamaged eyeball around a few times before taking it home to preserve it in his refrigerator. Fortunately he didn’t take it home to feed on it but simply to keep it fresh until someone from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) could come and identify it. Normally, rumors of massive sea monsters began spreading throughout the area.

Wildlife authorities quickly ruined the fun by identifying the giant oculus as belonging to a huge swordfish (a specie that can reach fourteen hundred pounds). Well, it didn’t end there as many still asked how the eye wound up on the beach? The FWC solved the mystery too by saying that although it was definitely uncommon to see a fully intact eyeball separate from any other body parts, this one had clear, straight-line cuts around the tissue—indicating that some horrific fisherman carefully cut out the baby blue and then threw it overboard.

In 2006, a tractor-trailer-size container filled with thousands of bags of Doritos washed up on a beach in Frisco. When the container was broken open by Charter boats captains, they discovered that it was brimming with Doritos. Surprisingly a horde of the packets were still sealed and undamaged. But the story regrettably doesn’t have an entirely happy ending as the container carrying the Dips was never recovered!!

This 30-foot fishing boat carrying more than one ton of marijuana washed up onto the Southern California coast. The boat was seen close to Ventura and the Los Angeles county line near Leo Carillo State Park. Anyway, what’s more shocking is that till date no one has come forward to claim the cargo and although one person was detained on the beach for “sampling” the product, the appearance of the boat and it’s cargo remains a mystery. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a helicopter crew could not locate anyone in the water. No arrests or injuries have been reported in connection to the vessel as of yet outside the person who was detained on the beach.