Friday, August 9, 2019

A Weird Beach Find For Freaky Friday...!

When you live close enough to the shore to go beachcombing, you never know just what you may find. From Listverse, here is one of the more unusual finds on the sandy shores.

The French Goop



Photo credit: Live Science

The English Channel coastline hugs a busy shipping lane. Strange things often float to its beaches, but none matched the greasy balls that arrived in 2017. Hundreds of yellow clumps lined miles of northern France’s beaches. There was a faint whiff of paraffin wax, but paraffin melts in the sun and this goop never did.

Authorities issued a statement that the spongy-looking balls were probably not dangerous. In the same breath, they could not positively say what the objects were made of. Pollution watchdogs were more realistic and warned people not to touch the stuff.

Considering that tons littered miles of coastline, some beachgoers undoubtedly touched the gunk. Thankfully, no morgue reports were forthcoming. The only clue seemed to be that that fluff balls originated from an oil product. One theory suggested that it was some kind of boat exhaust grease that solidified once it came into contact with the cold seawater.

Telling people not to touch this stuff is like putting up a sign saying "wet paint!" You know someone is going to touch it.

Coffee inside this morning.

7 comments:

Mamahen said...

I had read about this before. It amazes me no one is trying to find out more about it...We had some storms yesterday...hopefully today will be better...enjoy your weekend:))

linda m said...

Sure hope they come up with an explanation. Wet cement is another sure fire magnet.

HermitJim said...

Hey Mamahen...
Maybe they already know what it is and don't want to share.
Thanks for coming over today!

Hey Linda...
Right you are about the wet cement sign.
Thanks for stopping by this morning!

JO said...

Well that killed someones day at the beach. Humans cause lots of strange things don't they. I agree my friend they know what it is

texasann said...

Just home from a week at the beach 😎, but was nothing like this, thankfully.
We tried to pick up trash and garbage 🚮 each morning, but there seemed to be less around this year, yea 🐚 Worst item, a heavy duty rubber glove that daughter though at first was a severed hand!✋ We all laughed about it later.

Big hugs ~

Sixbears said...

There's an awful lot of weird stuff that washes up on beaches. It's a big ocean out there.

Enjoying some Timor coffee today.

HermitJim said...

Hey Jo...
Humans do create some pretty bad messes, that's for sure.
Tanks, dear, for dropping by today!

Hey Sis...
I can almost see the surprise and shock on the daughter's face when the glove was found! That will make a good story for the later years.
Thanks for coming over today!

Hey Sixbears...
I've seen pictures of some strange things washed up on beaches around the world and it can really make you scratch your head sometimes.
Many thanks for the visit today!