Mysterious ‘blobs’ are washing up on Newfoundland shore

Photos of the substance began cropping up on a beachcombers group online, prompting speculation that it was fungus or mold, palm oil, paraffin wax or even ambergris – a rare and valuable substance produced by whales and used in the perfume industry.

One poster suggested it looked like dough used to make ‘Toutons’ – a regional dish of dough often fried in pork fat.

A spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada told the Globe and Mail, external that the substance was not a petroleum hydrocarbon, petroleum lubricant, biofuel or biodiesel.

While a marine ecologist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada told the newspaper it was not a sea sponge and contained no biological material.

The blobs were spotted along the shores of Placentia Bay, on Newfoundland’s southeast coast.

Mr Tobin, a local environmentalist, lives in Ship Cove, a tiny village on the bay, and regularly walks the beaches.