Mysterious, Gross Yellow Fluff Balls Wash Up on French Shores

[Judi Lynn]

By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | July 19, 2017 11:15am ET


Hundreds of yellow, fluffy blobs of mystery material have washed up on the shores of northern France in the past week.

The balls of goo have been found along many miles of the English Channel coastline, according to the Sea-Mer Association, a nonprofit organization that protects coastlines from pollution. [Photos: Weird Yellow Fluff Balls Wash Up on French Beaches]

The mysterious yellow clumps look like sponges, very unappetizing hunks of butterscotch mousse or possibly the biggest balls of earwax ever. Tons of them have washed up along a tourist-magnet stretch of France's Opal Coast.

So far, nobody knows exactly what the mystery material is, though one leading contender is paraffin wax.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/59856-yellow-goo-washes-ashore-in-france.html?utm_source=notification

[SCantiGOP]

1. You posted this

You have to follow up and let us know what it turns out to be.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Funny, most of those photos look like kapok ...

but the article doesn't describe the texture as being "foamy", but more like wax. Apparently paraffin wax is used in some tankers' hulls. Different grades of wax will have very different melting points and textures, so that strikes me as the most likely candidate even if witnesses say it doesn't look like other paraffin they've seen on the beaches before.

[Thor_MN]

3. Fallout from the Deepwater Horizon blowout?

Not likely, but it is the first thing I thought of...