Ariel, she’s not.
A creepy-looking “mermaid” is said to have washed ashore in Papua New Guinea — leaving nautical experts baffled and searching for answers.
Quickly buried by myth-loving locals living on a remote island before a DNA sample could be retrieved, scientists were left to assess a series of images taken at the scene and originally released in a Facebook post.
And while the idea of a Disney princess turning up in real life might certainly be the more interesting explanation, the mysterious white mass is, by definition, considered to be a globster.
Globster is a term used for masses of marine flesh that are sometimes found on beaches in varying states of decay.
Environmental scientist Helene Marsh told Live Science she thinks the lifeless lump is a dead animal rather than a person.
“After that it is anyone’s guess,” Marsh added.
A so called “mermaid” globster washed ashore on an island in Papua New Guinea.Facebook / New Irelanders Only
Another marine mammal specialist, Sascha Hooker, said “it looks like a very decomposed cetacean,” referring to large mammals like whales or dolphins, as they’re known to turn white as a ghost when deceased.
On the other hand, Erich Hoyt, a researcher at Whale and Dolphin Conservation in the UK, won’t rule out the globster being a dugong, or sea cow. He is certain that whatever was recovered has “been dead for weeks.”
Fellow expert Gregory Skomal, a marine biologist spotted what “looks like a trachea” on the maritime mystery.
A mysterious globster washed ashore on a Pacific island.Facebook / New Irelanders Only
Locals quickly buried the globster.Facebook / New Irelanders Only
The anatomical discovery ruled out his first guess.
“At first, I was leaning toward a large shark, but now that I’ve spent a bunch of time looking at this, I am more confident it is a cetacean due shape of the tail and location of the flippers.”
Jens Currie, who is the chief scientist of Hawaii’s Pacific Whale Foundation in Hawaii added that “the amount of blubber also indicates a marine mammal and not a shark.”
