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If you ask me, globsters have the makings of a terrible (but great) horror movie. What is a globster? So glad you asked. A globster is… well… it’s kind of hard to define. Basically, it’s a blobby-looking, unidentifiable carcass that has washed up on a shore somewhere. Some globsters have bones, some don’t. Sometime they have tentacles, flippers and eyes, sometimes they don’t.
One of the most famous globsters is the St. Augustine Monster.
It was first spotted by a couple of kids riding bikes on the beach on November 30, 1896. It had sunk into the sand under its own weight – only about half of it was visible to the boys. They thought it might be the leftovers of a beached whale, because something similar had happened in the same area a couple of years before. They reported the blob to a local physician, who went to the beach to inspect it the next day. He estimated that the carcass weighed five tons and that it might be a giant octopus because he could make out what he thought was four arm stumps, with another stump buried in the sand nearby.
Another doctor came for a look and described the thing as such:
“The head is as large as an ordinary flour barrel, and has the shape of a sea lion head. The neck, if the creature may be said to have a neck, is of the same diameter as the body. The mouth is on the under side of the head and is protected by two tentacle tubes about eight inches in diameter and about 30 feet long. These tubes resemble an elephant’s trunk and obviously were used to clutch in a sucker like fashion any object within their reach.
“Another tube or tentacle of the same dimensions stands out on the top of the head. Two others, one on each side, protrude from beyond the monster’s neck, and extend fully 15 feet along the body and beyond the tail. The tail, which is separated and jagged with cutting points for several feet, is flanked with two more tentacles of the same dimensions as the others and 30 feet long. The eyes are under the back of the mouth instead of over it.”
Yikes. Over the years, it has been speculated that, among other things, the carcass was that of a sea monster, a giant octopus, a sperm whale and a giant squid. A chunk of the blob was preserved at the Smithsonian, and over the years it has been tested by various scientists. The most recent, conducted in 2004, concluded that it the globster had once been a whale.
In fact, research is now showing that most of the globsters are probably just big chunks of blubber that have fallen off decomposing whales. Delightful. Or maybe that’s just a conspiracy to make us think that’s what globsters are (I saw Cloverfield last weekend, people).
Nevertheless, some other well-known globsters include:
• The Tasmanian Globster washed up on the shores of western Tasmania in 1960, measured about 20 by 18 feet and weighed somewhere between five and ten tons. It didn’t have any eyes, and instead of a mouth it had “soft, tusk-like protuberances”. It did have a spine, in addition to six fleshy arms and stiff white bristles all over its body.
• The Bermuda Blob was found by fisherman Teddy Tucker in Mangrove Bay, Bermuda, in May 1988. Compared to the others, this guy was relatively small: only about three feet thick. He described it as being white and fibrous and having five arms kind of like a starfish. Turns out it was just the remains of a big shark.
• In 1990, a globster was found across the pond in Hebrides, Scotland. It was found by Louise Whitts, who said it looked like it has a head at one end, furry skin and lots of fin shapes along its back. No samples were taken of the Hebrides Blob, so it’s unknown what it was exactly.
• Tasmania is a popular gathering ground for these things, I guess, because the Four Mile Globster was found on Four Mile Beach in Tasmania in 1997. It was 15 feet long and weighed about four tons. It was described a lot like the first Tasmanian Globster: strands of white hair, fleshy lobes and some flipper/arm like things. This one was also never tested. Suspicious!
The Chilean Blob really takes the cake… or the beach, as it were. The 13-ton (!) globster (below) was found in the sand in Los Muermos, Chile, in July 2003. At the time, biologists couldn’t figure out what it could possibly be and thought that it might be some sort of giant octopus previously unknown to man. About a year later, after DNA testing, they discovered that some of the DNA matched that of a sperm whale and the blob was just part of a whale’s remains.
Really, all I have to say about any of that is “ew”. Can you imagine swimming in the ocean and accidentally brushing your leg up against any of that? I’m so grossed out right now.
What do you guys think? Whales? Unidentified sea creatures? Government cover up?? Despite my joking, I think whale blubber seems pretty plausible.
And now I have another reason to add to my list of Why I Won’t Go in the Ocean. Gag.
posted by Jenny M on 1-22-2008 at 2:35 pm
Well not to be too graphic (never mind, this post passed that a while ago) could these be the miscarried fetuses or whatever of some very large sea animal?
posted by JaneM on 1-22-2008 at 2:37 pm
It´s summer in South America right now and you just ruined my beach going experience with the “leg brushing the blubber glob in the ocean” comment. No more water forays for me. Ew.
posted by GTT on 1-22-2008 at 2:41 pm
Ohhhh… the miscarried fetuses comment just clinched the SICK award. GROSS! Forget going in the ocean, I´m just trying to keep my lunch down at this point!
posted by GTT on 1-22-2008 at 2:44 pm
This is why I like pools. Nice, clean, private pools where I can see the bottom. No glob monsters in my pool, thankyouverymuch.
posted by Melodye on 1-22-2008 at 2:53 pm
I’m from Chile, and beaches are always full of little globs, from squids and octupus, it sucks in summer…
posted by Mile on 1-22-2008 at 2:59 pm
Well I live near Galveston Bay in Coastal Texas. No blubber here fols, just jellyfish, globs of oil and any other form of pollution you can imagine.
posted by Witty Nickname on 1-22-2008 at 3:17 pm
But hey, if it weren’t for all the nasty decomposing flesh blobs out in the ocean, there’d be no nutrient recycling, no plankton blooms, and all that.
Decomposing stuff’s just part of nature - it’s just the part we like to ignore because it’s gross.
posted by Katherine on 1-22-2008 at 3:24 pm
That first picture looked like a black and white shot of a Graboid.
Tremors? Anyone? Sorry, I watched the entire Tremors Attack Pack this weekend.
posted by Amy on 1-22-2008 at 4:04 pm
Great post! I love this stuff. Gets my imagination running wild with large, undiscovered sea creatures. However, I agree that whale blubber is probably what it’s all about. What interests me though, is that if all these things come from pretty much the same few animals, why so many strange and interesting morphologies. I mean, shouldn’t rotting whale carcasses(assuming same level of decomposition) look more similar?
posted by Scott A. on 1-22-2008 at 4:08 pm
Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I’d think that the difference between the carcasses might have to do with the water in which they have decomposed. Temperature, salinity, even depths I suppose.
I’m all squeamished out though. ;)
posted by mrs.djs on 1-22-2008 at 4:15 pm
I also just saw Cloverfield (last night), and although it struck me as a cheese fest, I will refer to the “monster” in the movie as a “blobster”, from this point forward.
posted by Sarah on 1-22-2008 at 4:27 pm
You bunch of pansies! (J/K) You cant be serious about not going back into the water just because something slimy touched you? I mean, when has slime ever really caused any problems? Delicious slime mmmmmm. . . .
posted by Gilbert on 1-22-2008 at 4:38 pm
More grease for my frying pan!
posted by Jared Probst on 1-22-2008 at 4:54 pm
I’m all about unidentified sea creatures. We spend tons more money “exploring” outer space than we do on our own planet’s oceans. We should know everything–or almost everything–about life on our own planet before jetting off to “find” life elsewhere.
P.S. Just wanted to see how many “people” got “upset” by the “quotes”
posted by Chris on 1-22-2008 at 5:48 pm
This is kind of gross, but oddly fascinating…
posted by Kaitie on 1-22-2008 at 6:12 pm
Gilbert: I´m allergic to algea… Can you imagine what rotting whale-carcass-slime would do to me? I´m breaking out in hives already.
(Although I have to admit that next weekend, after laying in the sun for a couple of hours, the temptation to get in the water will overcome any current blubber fobias).
posted by GTT on 1-22-2008 at 6:17 pm
This makes #12 on reasons I hate the ocean.
posted by bryn on 1-23-2008 at 7:47 am
Aliens!
posted by SlackJack on 1-23-2008 at 7:51 am
bryn, just curious… what are #’s 1-11?
posted by Tricia on 1-23-2008 at 10:27 am
Mercury, hypodermics, trash. Ew! that’s another reason why I won’t go near the shore!
—Adult Humback Whale, who’s brain averages 12 lbs., or about 3.5 X larger than an adult humans…
posted by Jim on 1-23-2008 at 11:39 am
Eww, that last picture of the giant slime…ugh. I think I’d cry, how do things like that even EXIST! I’m scared of large bodies of water, and my friends think I’m nuts. This only proves my point…and my fear.
posted by Emily on 1-24-2008 at 12:40 pm