PORT ARANSAS, Texas (KXAN) — Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see.
The first doll washed ashore in January 2021, dubbed by the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve as “the craziest beach find of all time.”
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And but, the craziness has continued.
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Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see. (Courtesy: The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve) -
Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see. (Courtesy: The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve) -
Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see. (Courtesy: The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve) -
Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see. (Courtesy: The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve) -
Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see. (Courtesy: The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve) -
Their origins unknown, barnacle-covered dolls proceed to look alongside the Texas shores at Port Aransas, and researchers there are documenting it for all to see. (Courtesy: The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve)
Researchers instructed the Fort Worth Star-Telegram roughly 30 dolls have been collected in over a yr. The dolls arrive coated in barnacles, lacking limbs and a few stained inexperienced by algae.
While crews are stationed alongside Port Aransas particularly for analysis on coastal ecosystems, the dolls have added a little bit of levity — and thriller — to their work, Mission-Aransas Reserve Director Jace Tunnell instructed the Star-Telegram.
“Every day is something new,” he stated. “Just when you think you’ve found everything that could possibly wash up on shore, something else comes up.”
Texas beaches are sometimes scattered with seaweed and jellyfish – and litter – due to the best way the currents move within the Gulf of Mexico, explains Texas Aquatic Science. Gulf currents transfer towards Texas shores from each the north and south, bringing with them something that will get dumped within the water. The trash might be coming from Mexico, any of the Gulf states, or it may have fallen off a ship out at sea.
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The Mission-Aransas Reserve has been posting its beachcombing finds on its Facebook web page. It’s not simply creepy dolls that wash up – the group has discovered a message in a bottle, scientific devices and a decoy duck in latest weeks.