Dr. Webb visited the carcass the next day, and discovered that it was not a whale.
But he couldnt say what the mass of badly decomposed flesh was.
There was no defining feature, no bones, no eyes, and no appendages that he could identify.
Dr. Webb noted that the carcass was very pale pink, almost white, and had a rubbery consistency.
After many hours of inspection, Dr. Webb conjectured that the carcass was that of a giant octopus.
What happened to the carcass afterwards is not known.
An analysis conducted in the 1970s confirmed that the St. Augustine sea monster was an octopus.
This observation was endorsed fifteen years later by another analysis.
This time it was found that masses were pure collagen, the structural protein found in skin.
Researchers concluded that the mass was the remains of whale skin, nothing more or less.
Subsequent analysis confirmed that the mass was indeed whale flesh.
It turns out that carcasses similar to the St. Augustine monster have washed ashore on beaches across the world.
They are called globsters.
Later, its carcass washed up on Margate Beach where it remained for ten days.
Unfortunately, no experts had the opportunity to study Trunko.
The white fur-like thing is badly-decayed collagen which is found in abundance in whale tissue.
Tasmanian Globster
The Tasmanian Globster washed ashore in western Tasmania, in August 1960.
It measured 20 feet by 18 feet and was estimated to weigh between 5 and 10 tons.
The mass lacked eyes and in place of a mouth, had “soft, tusk-like protuberances”.
It had a spine, six soft, fleshy ‘arms’ and stiff, white bristles covering its body.
The carcass was identified as a whale two decades later using electron microscopy to analyze the collagen fiber.
The term globster was coined to describe this carcass.
It weighed 13 tons and measured 12 meters across.
