20 January 2024 , 19:42
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A strange faceless sea beast as big as three people has left experts stumped after washing up on a north Yorkshire beach.
Caroline Pindar was exploring rock pools in Hayburn Wyke when she spotted the strange remains. She said: “The location is remote with access only on foot.
“There had been a severe storm and there was a lot of foam amongst the rocks where the tide had receded. At a distance I wondered if the remains were foam or washed up fishing debris – there is lots of this type of pollution round here. But as I got closer it was obviously far too big.”
She continued: “The remains were very decomposed, with bones protruding through the skin, and mounds of blubber to one side. The way it was hunched made it look as if the exposed bones were tusks, semi-walrus like. No head or tail were obvious. The smell was very strong.”
It was a huge faceless creature (Credit: Pen News/Caroline Pindar)
Caroline was exploring rock pools when she made the discovery (Credit: Pen News/Caroline Pindar)Mrs Pindar, from nearby Scarborough, estimates that the creature was some 16ft long – roughly the size of three normal women lying top to toe. In her photos, the faceless hulk is covered in blotchy white skin that’s stringy in texture, with bones poking through in places.
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Searching for answers, Caroline, 61, shared her pics with a specialist marine life group online, but there was no clear consensus about what she’d found. One person commented: “They look like tusks, so my guess is a walrus.”
There is no consensus among experts as to what the creature was (Credit: Pen News/Caroline Pindar)Another said: “Minke whale for me, those are the bones of its left pectoral fin.” Others suggested a seal or some kind of oversized dolphin. Even the experts at UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme were stuck for a firm identification.
Project manager Rob Deaville said: “This one's a bit trickier! Looks like the rotted remains of a larger cetacean – I think I can see remnants of throat pleats in one of the images.
The creature was unlike anything she had seen before (Credit: Pen News/Caroline Pindar)“Given the size with the person in the background as scale, I'd perhaps lean towards something like a minke whale. But to be honest, its difficult to tell given the decomposition. I'd perhaps just call it an unidentified or indeterminate-identity baleen whale?”
For Caroline, an experienced rockpooler, it was unlike anything she’d ever seen. She said: “I had seen dead porpoises in various states of decomposition around here, and seen/smelt a decomposing whale from the water in Orkney, but nothing like this. My overwhelming feeling was sadness that an animal had died. Then concern, wondering how and why it had died, hoping it had not been entangled in nets and drowned in distress.”