A strange lump of flesh recently left beachgoers feeling strange after it washed ashore on the UK coast. Experts believe that the unusual object is actually a pile of whale intestines drifting ashore.

Local resident Helen Marlow discovered this strange object at around 12pm local time on October 27 while walking her dog on Marazion Beach, near Penzance in Cornwall, England.

Marlow came across this lump of flesh, covered in seaweed, halfway up the beach just after the tide went out, which suggests that it had washed ashore. Marlow said it did not have any noticeable odor or give off any pungent, unpleasant or putrid odors.

Marlow said Marlow’s dog was very excited and tried to rub its body on the mysterious tumor, suggesting that the object was organic. But she really didn’t know what it was.

Whale placenta?

Marlow uploaded photos of the lump of flesh to the British Marine Research Society Facebook group and received mixed guesses as to what it might be. Suggestions include whale placenta, sandbags and a deflated balloon.

The Facebook post quickly attracted the attention of Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s (CWT) Marine Stranding Network, which records all dead organic material washing up on beaches in the area.

Initially, researchers suspected that the alien-looking object could be a whale placenta. “This is going to be really exciting, because it means a baby whale was born recently,” said Abby Crosby, a marine conservation officer at CWT.

However, after consulting with experts at the UK’s Cetacean Strandings Investigation Program (CSIP), it became clear that the gelatinous mass was in fact the stomach of a whale. It’s unclear exactly what species of whale the whale’s stomach may have come from, but its size provides some clues.

“The stomach is quite large,” Crosby said, which means it must have come from a fairly large whale. Several species of large whales regularly pass through UK waters, including fin whales ( Balaenoptera physalus ), minke whales ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ) and humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ).

Species that visitors see less often include species such as sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) and bowhead whales ( Balaena mysticetus ), Crosby said.

She added that this could be the stomach of a dead whale decomposing on the ocean surface far from the coast.

According to Live Science