Lumpy white globs washing up on the shores of Canada’s Atlantic island province of Newfoundland for weeks have captivated the imagination of locals and are baffling scientists.
The slimy, spongy globs as big as dinner plates were discovered by beachcombers in early September scattered over the pebbly beaches of Placentia Bay on the island’s southern tip.
Several people posted pictures on social media asking if anyone knew anything about them.
Photo courtesy of Environment and Climate Change Canada
Responses flooded in, some speculating that they may be clumps of cheese, alien poo or whale boogers.
“OMG is that Olaf?” Selina Stoyles posted, referring to a snowman character in the Disney film Frozen.
Others opined they might be discarded breakfast biscuit dough or paraffin waxes from a tanker that was cleaned out and discharged at sea. They tried to light them on fire, discovering that they are combustible.
Authorities said they are taking this possible pollution threat to the coastal environment “very seriously.”
The Canadian Coast Guard sent a three-person team “to assess the situation” and collect samples of the globs on the beaches west of the provincial capital St John’s for testing.
Federal environmental emergencies officers also visited the area several times, conducting what the environment ministry said were extensive “aerial, underwater, and manual surveys of the beaches and shorelines in the area to determine the extent of the substance, what it is and its potential source.”
“At this time, neither the substance nor its source has been identified,” Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) spokeswoman Eleni Armenakis said.
“Preliminary analysis at an ECCC laboratory suggests that the material could be plant-based,” she said.
However, further analysis on the “mysterious substance” is needed to determine exactly what it is and its potential impacts, she added.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but