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SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD

Please Pass the Globster

Bermuda island in 1988. Controversy and “when the microscopic anatomy and and mystery surrounded the creatures for biochemical composition of the Chilean Q: What is a globster and where decades, as definitive identifications and Nantucket Blobs are compared with can I find one? eluded researchers. those of the other remains, similarities In a series of articles for his publication are manifest. Thus, there is no doubt —D. Musella The Cryptozoology Review, Canadian that they are all derived from the same marine biologist Ben Roesch examined the type of organism.” original accounts of over two dozen alleged With the application of science, one of A: A globster (or “blobster”) is a huge, sea serpent carcasses found between 1648 the world’s great mysteries of the sea has smelly, often whitish mass of flesh found and 1924. He concluded that the creatures finally been explained. The many men- on beaches throughout the world. No, “often turn out to be basking sharks, tions of globsters in books on the “unex- not tourists—dead “sea monsters.” “If sea whales, oarfish, or some other known crea- plained” will have to be revised in the cold serpents exist, why don’t we have a body?” ture.” In some especially puzzling cases— light of hard evidence and close scrutiny, asks cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, in where the information was highly suspect informing their readers that a whole sub- his field guide to sea serpents. “Well, we or especially sketchy—even a tenuous genre of “monsters” have been identified. do. Dozens and dozens of odd carcasses, identification was impossible. Yet because much of the material tends strange live catches, and huge lumps of A team of biologists led by Sidney toward mystery-mongering, it may take decaying tissue… have been recovered. Pierce began looking into the mystery and many years for the conclusions to be But what are they, exactly? Identifying tried to settle the issue. As the authors accepted and widely known. pointed out, “Wild claims, especially in often partial and decomposing remains is References no easy task.” the nonscientific literature, are regularly made that the blobs are the remains of sea Coleman, L., and P. Huyghe. 2003. The Field Guide The blobsters are obviously flesh, yet to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery have decayed so badly that they lack monsters. For example, the Tasmanian Denizens of the Deep. New York: Penguin. bones or distinguishing features. For West Coast Monster is still referred to as a Pierce, S., S. Massey, N. Curtis, G. Smith, C. monster, although an Australian scientific Olavarria, and T. Maugel. 2004. Microscopic, many people, the huge, strange creatures biochemical, and molecular characteristics of the strongly resemble sea monsters. One clas- team . . . identified it as a whale. Other Chilean Blob and a comparison with the sic globster washed ashore in 1896, when relics such as the St. Augustine (Florida) remains of other sea monsters: Nothing but Sea Monster and the Bermuda Blob are whales. Biological Bulletin June, 206:125–133. giant waves tossed a massive fleshy corpse Pierce, S., G. Smith, T. Maugel, and E. Clark. 1995. on a beach at St. Augustine, Florida. The still described by some as the remains of a On the Giant Octopus (Octopus giganteus) and rubbery, six-foot-high blob was examined gigantic octopus, even though A.E. the Bermuda Blob: Homage to A.E. Verrill. Verrill—who named the St. Augustine Biological Bulletin April, 188: 219–230. by a local naturalist, who initially specu- Roesch, B. 1997–1999. A review of alleged sea ser- lated that it was likely from a giant octo- specimen sight unseen—recanted his pent carcasses worldwide. The Cryptozoology
pus far larger than any previously seen. identification in favor of whale remains . . . Review (Parts 1–4, 2:2–3:3). Many other such blobs have washed and in spite of microscopic and biochem- ashore, including one in Chile in July ical analyses showing that they were noth- 2003 and another in Newfoundland in ing more than the collagenous matrix of Ask the Skeptic 2001. There’s also the Tasmanian West whale blubber.” In 2004, Pierce and his colleagues Heard about some dubious para- Coast Monster, the Nantucket Blob, and normal or fringe-science claim? two so-called “Bermuda Blobs,” the most examined all available globster speci- mens using electron microscopes, and Ask the skeptic! Submissions can recent of which washed ashore on be sent to: The Skeptical In- applied biochemical, molecular, and quiree, Skeptical Inquirer, P.O. DNA analyses. The conclusion: the sam- Benjamin Radford is coauthor, with Joe Box 703, Amherst NY 14226 (or Nickell, of Lake Monster Mysteries: ples matched exactly those of various [email protected]). Investigating the World’s Most Elusive species of great whales. The DNA and Creatures. molecular structure were unmistakable,

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