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Mysterious sea creature washes up on New Zealand beach
October 14, 1997
Web posted at: 12:16 a.m. EDT (0416 GMT)WANGANUI, New Zealand (CNN) -- It looks something like a lump of rotting carpet, but the smell is unmistakably that of a dead and decomposing sea creature.
Local residents are puzzled over a mysterious sea creature that recently washed up on a New Zealand beach about 100 miles from Wellington.
A hairy fiber grew over its whitish flesh, and it has large, paddle-like tentacles.
A giant squid? A prehistoric marine species?
New Zealand scientists say it most likely is a partly decomposed sperm whale.
The smell gives it away, according to Steve O'Shea of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
Other marine scientists agree, and say that as odd-looking as the carcass may be, it does resemble two other fleshy masses that washed ashore in the 1980s and turned out to be decomposed whales.
Experts are examining the "glob," hoping once and for all to unravel the mystery behind it.
Related site:
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- StrangeMag - Globsters!
(a collection of reports of strange creatures & carcasses that have washed upon shore over the years)External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
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