Hairy Sea Monster on Russia Beach a Baffling Discovery

A "hairy sea monster" reportedly washed up on a Russian beach off the Bering Sea recently, leaving locals baffled as to what it could be, the Siberian Times reported Wednesday.

The "monster," which was found on the Pacific side of the Kamchatka peninsula near the remote village of Pakhachi, appears to have a dirty chalk color with a long tail, or tentacle, but no definite head or eyes, the publication said.

The Times said the unknown creature was three times the size of a man and too heavy for locals to move.

"The most interesting thing to me is that the creature is covered with tubular fur," witness Svetlana Dyadenko posted, according to the publication. "Could it be some ancient creature? I wish scientists could inspect this enigma that ocean threw at us."

Some suggested that the creature may be what was called a "globster," the term used in 1962 to describe a mysterious Tasmanian carcass which had "no visible eyes, no defined head, and no apparent bone structure, the Times wrote.

One such "globster" washed up the shores of the Philippines last year, according to the BBC News. That creature measured about 6 meters long and appeared to be in the later stages of decomposition, the news agency wrote then.

Scientists suggested that the globsters were carcasses of large sea creatures, like whales or sharks, according to the Times. That was the case in the Philippines, researchers suggested, according to the BBC News.

"The carcass is about 6 meters long, but that's obviously not the whole carcass; there's no tail so it would have been bigger than that," Lucy Babey, head of science and conservation for the animal charity Orca, said of the Philippines creature. "That would suggest that it was probably a whale."

Russian marine biologist Sergei Kornev told the Times that be believes the creature found near Pakhachi also is part of a decaying sea mammal.

"Under the influence of the sea, time and various animals, from the smallest to the largest, a whale often takes on bizarre forms," Kornev told the publication. "This is only a part of a whale, not a whole one."

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