Twice in less than a year a mysterious carcass has washed ashore in Montauk, NY — and the remains of both indescribable creatures have been called the "Montauk Monster." While some thought the original beast was a viral marketing campaign, others worry that the remains could be caused by an animal disease research center on Plum Island.

Nicky Papers runs a website called Montauk-Monster.com, which tracks the latest developments, and he hypothesizes that the Plum Island center may be behind the mystery. He writes, "If this is a genetic mishap from Plum Island, we’d like to sell the remains to an independent lab for study … It has become a race against the clock as the couple who originally found ‘Beastie’ are diligently putting more ice into the cooler to keep the carcass fresh."

Plum Island, Papers points out, is where some say Lyme disease originated. He also speculated that the beast could be evidence of biological warfare.

What do you think? Is the ‘Montauk Monster’ a real threat or simply an ugly conspiracy theory?