Seven most strange things that washed ashore in 2021

Across the globe, beaches have seen their fair share of weird blobs washing ashore. Small and weird debris has been found many times, including tar balls that dotted Israel's Mediterranean coastline in February or a tangled rope coral that found its way onto a beach in Texas. 

Other times, organisms numbered in the millions, such as the by-the-wind sailor jellyfish whose corpses were stranded across shores.

Here is a list of wild and strange things that ended up on beaches in the year 2021, as compiled by Live Science.

Millions of 'sailor' jellyfish

Beaches around the world face millions of dead 'sailors' by wind jellyfish as they wash up and die on the shores. They get floated near the top of the sea and the little sails on their backs catch the wind and push them from one feeding ground to the next.

When the seasons change wind patterns, huge colonies of the jellies can end up stranded on the shore.

Young killer whale strands on Scottish beach

A juvenile killer whale was heroically rescued in January after getting stranded on a Scottish beach. A group of trained medics carried a rescue on an island off the coast of Scotland. 

The animal was healthy and old enough to survive on its own, so it was brought to the deep water and sent off.

A truck-size basking shark

In January, local fishermen got stunned by witnessing a male basking shark measuring 26 feet (8 meters) long. It was the size of a pickup truck and it washed on the coast of Bremen. Marine researchers still aren't sure about the cause of his death.

Twisted 'rope pile' on a Texas beach

The creature looks like a tangled snarl of yellow rope, but it is actually a type of coral known as a colorful sea whip. 

Many commenters have said that they had seen colourful sea whips on the beach before, but had always assumed that the creatures were trash, such as discarded cords or part of a fishing net.

40 refloated whales in New Zealand

On a February morning on a remote beach in New Zealand, hundreds of people gathered when 49 long-finned pilot whales beached themselves.

Nine of them died during the stranding while the rescue group looked after the surviving whales throughout the day, keeping their skin cool and moist and preventing their fins from being crushed beneath their beached bodies. Later on, they were herded back by volunteers into the deep water.

Toxic tarballs wash up on Israel's coastline

The Israel oil spill turned into tar balls — small concentrated blobs of congealed oil were formed for several days because rough sea conditions from a storm broke up the slick and mixed it into the seawater.

It was described by officials as "one of the most serious ecological disasters" the country had ever seen.

Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida

A dead body of an Amazon "river monster" was found rotting by Florida locals near the Gulf of Mexico, and it became a worrisome issue as several people got disturbed with the thought that this beast might become the state's latest invasive species. But this so-called monster, the arapaima (Arapaima gigas), faces many hurdles before it can call Florida home.