Found this floating about 10 miles out,this ball has obviously travelled a long way check out the Goose Barnacles quite pretty 😁 pic.twitter.com/LCdEQNAAWy
— Annie Gilbert (@HappyHooker1157) November 2, 2017
A U.K. couple found a strange man-made object in the water near the Isle of Wight — a basketball with a full beard of goose barnacles. Twitter users loved the photo of the ball, leading to countless Castaway references.
Annie Gilbert shared a photo of the basketball and her husband, Ian, carrying it. “Found this floating about 10 miles out,this ball has obviously travelled a long way check out the Goose Barnacles quite pretty,” she wrote on Nov. 2.
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She later told another Twitter user that they didn’t keep the ball. “It was released back into the sea to continue on its journey,” she wrote.
It was released back into the sea to continue on its journey
— Annie Gilbert (@HappyHooker1157) November 3, 2017
Gilbert, who lives in Poole, Dorset, told the Press Association that they found the ball about 10 miles south of The Needles, Isle of Wight.
“We were just on our way out to a fishing mark when we saw something bobbing about in the water,” Gilbert said. “We saw the barnacles as the ball was floating — some were out of the water, and when we landed the ball we saw that a lot had in fact hidden under the water.”
Gilbert told the Press Association they were “amazed and excited” by the discovery, which was unlike anything they’d ever encountered before. She thinks the ball was in the sea for years.
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Here’s some of the responses to Gilbert’s discovery on Twitter.
— spensfish (@spensfish) November 2, 2017
Wilson has been found
— Keith Brewer (@keithgbrewer) November 2, 2017
A search and rescue mission for Wilson.
— Francie Meeting You (@Francie_one) November 4, 2017
Barnacle Bill with barnacle ball.
— Kay Hutt (@BHALush) November 3, 2017
Love it! pic.twitter.com/UiSXZN6zAP
— Seagull Whisperer (@maxinepolperro) November 2, 2017