CEN/Isabel Rubio Going to the beach and walking along the shoreline is Child’s Play – that is, until you discover a disgusting, spooky doll riddled with marine worms.
Anyone who’s taken their dog for a nice, long walk at the beach knows of the bountiful crap that washes up every day. Balls, bottles, inexplicable bits of material and, occasionally it seems, weird children’s dolls.
For example, we have this creepy lost doll on a Spanish beach – dubbed Chucky by those who found it, after the infamous horror film series featuring the ginger, freckled villain of the same name.
CEN/Isabel RubioLocal resident Isabel Rubio found the child’s doll while collecting shells in Los Alcazares in the south-eastern Spanish region of Murcia. ‘I was looking for shells when I came across this, it shocked me at first,’ she told local media.
It should be made clear: the doll doesn’t really look anything like Chucky, the serial-killer-possessed doll of the Child’s Play series, famous for his red hair and dungarees (always with a knife in hand).
Universal Pictures This doll is much plainer, with all its clothes’ colour washed away – presumably after spending so much time floating adrift through the ocean. While the top half is relatively unharmed (aside from a pesky arm), the legs are an atrocity – covered thigh to toe in manky worms, likely to ignite disgust in those with trypophobia (a fear or repulsion of closely-packed holes and patterns).
After Rubio took the doll to the marine department at the University of Alicante, biologist Francisca Gimenez clearly found the doll so abhorrent and creepy she felt compelled to name it after the slasher icon.
CEN/Isabel Rubio The doll was later analysed in the lab, where it was confirmed it had around 4,000 Hydroides elegans, a species of tube-forming serpulid worms. The worms are considered an invasive species that often stick to boats and causes blockages in sea pipes.
The biologist believes that Chucky ended up in the ocean two to three months ago during floods caused by the cold front that battered the region at the end of last year. However, she added that the species’ appearance could have a positive effect in the area’s waters, as they feed on bacteria.
CEN/Isabel RubioGimenez told local media: ‘It is the first time we have seen such massive presence of this worm. The worms are considered an invasive species in many places as they grow quickly in areas with a large concentration of bacteria, such as when the floods caused the death of many fish.’
Just be careful while going for a stroll along your local beach – you might end up meeting your ‘friend till the end’.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.