Mysterious metal ball on Japanese Beach

[captancourgette]

No doubt people have seen the news about the 'mysterious' metal ball on a japanese beach during the last few days.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64748346 <- news article about it getting removed

Maybe I'm naive but ain't it just a bouy, sure a large one but just a bog standard bouy nonetheless, most are plastic but theres also metal ones

heres a page where you can buy some, largest is about the size of the one washed up in japan
https://hongruntongmarine.en.made-i...rine-Large-Steel-Buoys-Balls-for-Mooring.html

OK from googling for photos of the Japanese object I came across a news items and it looks like they have already figured it out. I'll keep this post anyways.
Yes I have worked in a port before but surely many more people knew what it was when they saw it, How did this ever become a news item?
Japan is one of the largest maritime nations on the planet (I guess top 5), did they not not think to ask anyone that works in the industry?
https://sot.com.al/english/bota/zgj...azh-ja-cfare-ishte-sfera-qe-i-habiti--i572294 <- explanation

actually I searched, and Japan is #7 for maritime fishing, so I was slightly off

 

[Ravi]

Nothing special, indeed. But any "mysterious" news item will live very long, it does not necessarily have to be useful news. I am certain this type of "news" is introduced by news agencies to "compensate" the serious stuff.

 

[Ann K]

just a bog standard bouy nonetheless

The article suggests it may be a buoy intended for use of a type unfamiliar to fishermen. From your article:

Prof Mark Inall, an oceanographer at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, said he knew what it was "instantly".
"It's very recognisable," he told the BBC. "We use (them) to keep instruments floating in the ocean."
They often wash up on the coast of Scotland, he added.
While Professor Inall said he was surprised that the metal sphere was not identified more quickly, he acknowledged that the general public wouldn't necessarily have known what it was.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64748346
In other words, nothing to see here, folks. Just a hyped "filler" article to amuse the public.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

People in Japan are nervous about North Korean and Chinese military aggression. They were wondering if it could be some sort of weapon or part of a weapon.

 

[Giddierone]

How did this ever become a news item?

It's a good question. Why this story, and why with such intensity of coverage?

Most of the tabloids & cable news make some kind of weak tangential link to the recent balloon stories. It seems almost anything spherical might also have become a viral story in such proximity to the "China Spy Balloon!" flap.

This "waterborne clutter" story should never have run, since anyone with a smart phone (especially the first people to find it) and reverse image search could have come to the most likely correct explanation of what it is.

It's a perfect example of the pressures on news editors to rush to publication "just in case" it turns out to be something interesting. The public are still interested and thinking about sphere's after all.

It also illustrates just how starved of mystery the media (and perhaps we) are. Any one of these previous discoveries would have been more interesting. https://www.rd.com/list/strangest-things-washed-up-on-beaches/

And we're in another realm of ubiquitous cameras that gruesome stories like this could run without a single image. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ained-woman-washed-up-on-a-beach-5371949.html I wonder what coverage of it would look like on today's various media platforms.

Even reputable corporations like the BBC can't help but cover it, but in an arms-length way saying "Look at the confusion this has caused". I guess it's their duty to prevent the spread of misinformation but they fail to lead their articles with headlines that clearly show that they know it's not a significant story, choosing "mystery ball" over "likely mooring buoy mistaken for sea mine" because readers might not click through the latter explanatory headline.

Saying that the BBC does a better job here of reviewing previous cases of items found on beaches some of which space based origins were postulated. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230222-the-strange-items-washing-up-on-beaches

If only it could have been something slightly more exciting like a Waverider Buoy the data from which when extracted revealed it had encountered some kind of monstrous underwater anomaly far away from human eyes and ears…

 

[Ann K]

@Giddierone
Apocryphal tale, but it sounds entirely plausible: Back in the 1940s, when ballistic missiles were a brand new thing, one was fired at White Sands and went off course, landing over the Mexican border in Juarez. Within hours, things like old washing machines were being stripped of parts to be sold to tourists as "fragments of the missile".

 

[Duke]

@Giddierone
Apocryphal tale, but it sounds entirely plausible: Back in the 1940s, when ballistic missiles were a brand new thing, one was fired at White Sands and went off course, landing over the Mexican border in Juarez. Within hours, things like old washing machines were being stripped of parts to be sold to tourists as "fragments of the missile".

I will not be surprised if we eventually see people selling small pieces of latex claimed to be part of the balloon shot down off South Carolina.

eBay has over 200 Chinese balloon related items for sell currently, the bulk of them being Tshirts. And yes, it appears some of them are from China.

 

[captancourgette]

It's a good question. Why this story, and why with such intensity of coverage?

No idea, it was very weird. I could see a fuss if it was found up a mountain in lesotho, but a bouy found on a beach next to the ocean!!!
How on earth did this make the news, Sure there was all the hype just before it about the chinese balloon but still, totally unwarranted coverage.
Yes media does fluff pieces all the time, but this felt a bit different in nature.

Whats next?, Mysterious orange and white plastic object found by the side of the road, experts are baffled as to what it can be
police have cordoned off the area and are investigating

 

[Alexandria Nick]

People in Japan are nervous about North Korean and Chinese military aggression. They were wondering if it could be some sort of weapon or part of a weapon.

My first instinct, despite being the less likely option, is that any mystery ball is a tank from a spacecraft. They're surprisingly common.

In part because "they couldn't possibly misidentify a common mooring buoy" has already eliminated that option from my mind. Although, that's exactly where we ended up here.

 

[Duke]

My first instinct, despite being the less likely option, is that any mystery ball is a tank from a spacecraft. They're surprisingly common. In part because "they couldn't possibly misidentify a common mooring buoy" has already eliminated that option from my mind. Although, that's exactly where we ended up here.

That was my first thought as well, but the conventional wisdom seems to be it's a mooring buoy. I wouldn't know one of those if I saw it, however.