On a quiet March morning in Margate, Kent, a leisurely stroll along the shore turned into a spine-chilling encounter for Paula Regan and her husband Dave. The London couple stumbled upon a mysterious, skeletal figure half-buried in the sand, its eerie form surrounded by tangled seaweed. This unidentified floating object, dubbed a “UFO” of the sea, left beachcombers baffled and sparked a wave of curiosity that rippled across social media.

“It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Paula told South West News Service. “For the life of me, I can’t tell you what it was.” The desolate beach made the discovery even more striking. “The shore was completely empty, so it really stood out,” she added.

Photos of the strange find reveal a creature straight out of a sci-fi nightmare: a gaunt, alien-like head perched atop an emaciated body, trailing into a scaled, fishtail-like appendage. It resembled a macabre mermaid, equal parts haunting and otherworldly. “At first, I thought it was driftwood or maybe a dead seal because of those odd tail fins,” Paula recounted. “The head looked skeletal, but the back part—where the fishtail was—felt soft and squidgy. It wasn’t slimy or decomposed, just… strange.”

The bizarre discovery quickly drew a crowd. Dog walkers, passersby, and even a man setting up beach huts gathered to gawk at the peculiar jetsam. Despite their collective scrutiny, no one could unravel the mystery. “Some thought it might’ve fallen off a boat,” Paula said. “Others suggested it could be a ship’s figurehead, like one of those carved mermaids. But honestly, it didn’t look human—or like anything we’d seen before.”

Paula knew the find was too extraordinary to go undocumented. “I just knew no one would believe us if we didn’t take a picture,” she said. The viral images have since fueled speculation online, with theories ranging from marine oddities to relics of maritime lore.

This isn’t the first time the UK’s shores have delivered a shocking surprise. Last spring, beachgoers were left reeling when a bloodsucking sea creature, roughly the size of a child, washed ashore, drawing comparisons to the monstrous sandworms of Dune. Like that creature, this skeletal enigma has left experts and onlookers alike grasping for answers.

As the Margate mystery continues to captivate, one thing is clear: the ocean still holds secrets strange enough to stun even the most seasoned beachcomber. What was this skeletal, finned figure? A forgotten artifact, a marine anomaly, or something else entirely? For now, it remains a haunting question mark etched in the sands of Margate.