Creature record / 2017
Tuesday night, 9 May 2017. On a remote beach on the island of Seram, in Indonesia's Maluku province, Asrul Tuanakota saw a huge dark shape at the waterline. He thought it was a stranded boat. He came back in daylight. A shapeless, fleshy mass about 15 metres long, with two bones jutting forward like elephant tusks and blood turning the water red. Fishermen called it a giant squid. Crowds flocked to Hulung Beach, and photos and video spread around the world. Scientists looked at the pictures and saw throat pleats, a jaw and vertebrae. The verdict was a decomposing whale. Its species was never confirmed.
Seram is a large island in Indonesia's Maluku province. On the coast of Desa Iha, in the Huamual district of West Seram Regency, lies the hamlet of Hulung. Its beach sits at the foot of Gunung Tembaga, near a cinnabar mine, about 20 minutes by motorbike from the village. In early May 2017, fishermen had watched something floating offshore near Iha for several days. They took it for a damaged boat.