Mystery meat on beaches

Officials in New Jersey are trying to work out why large chunks of mystery meat have been washing ashore in the American state.

Bob Schoelkopf of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center noted: 'The largest piece that we found intact was 5 feet... Almost as if someone had blown up an animal and it floated to shore.'

Experts from the center, who were called in to investigate the meat, say that it was actually internal organs from a large marine animal – possibly a whale or a shark. However, they're unable to pin down exactly what species might have been – or exactly how it got broken up into meat lumps.

To add to the mystery, it's not just New Jersey that's being inundated with innards. When the center officials contacted the National Marine Fisheries Service to let them know about the meat, they discovered that the beaches of neighboring Delaware had also been hit by a meat influx.

The meat is now undergoing DNA tests to discover what animal it used to belong to – bit it could be months before the results are back. By which time, residents must hope, their beaches will no longer be covered in meat.