creatures, it was revealed yesterday.

And the origin of the massive blob may never be discovered -- despite probes by scientists in Bermuda and the US.

Now marine biologists -- who think the blob may have been whale cartilage -- are looking at whether the creature died after eating sea fans infected by the killer fungus.

Biostation scientist Hank Rapido-Rosenthal said: "Scientists in the Caribbean noticed a few years ago that there was a large die off of sea fans.'' And he added that they had discovered a fungus had been responsible.

Dr. Rapido-Rosenthal said: "The fungus we found associated with the blob was of the same species.'' He added: "The question we have today is whether this organism, which we presumed to be a whale, ate some contaminated sea fans then died, or whether this fungus just got a chance to infect that organism after it was dead.'' But Dr. Rapido-Rosenthal stressed the fungus was not a threat to Bermuda's sea life.

He explained scientists examining the death of thousands of sea fans to the south found the fungus -- which thrives in sugar cane -- got into the sea through agricultural run-off.

The huge blob -- Bermuda's second -- was washed up on a South Shore beach, near Surf Side Cottages, last January.

Bermuda scientists were stumped by the half-ton white-grey mass and sent sections of it to scientists in the US for further examination.

Dr. Rapido-Rosenthal said: "Our colleagues in the States looked at the samples microscopically and it appeared to be cartilage, a mammal's cartilage and their conclusion was that it was a whale.'' But samples of DNA recovered from the blob turned out be similar to the Caribbean killer fungus. Dr. Rapido-Rosenthal said: "We didn't get whale DNA out of it -- what we did get was probably contamination.

"Whales and dolphins have a very large amount of cartilage, such as the casing around the head of a sperm whale.'' But Dr. Rapido-Rosenthal said Bermuda would have to wait for another blob because "we were not thinking of fungus at that time.'' He added: "If another blob was to wash up we would certainly take some samples and do definite tests.''