The crags and cracks across its surface are like sea marks mapping decades of wear underwater.The waves of the Atlantic recently released a bale of rubber, weighing approximately 300 pounds, onto the shore of Cape Canaveral. It's one of a few recently coming ashore on Florida's east coast. "The past couple we've picked up have been brought to our attention from law enforcement," said Leo Cross. Cross, a wildlife trapper who owns the company Florida Wildlife Trappers, is collecting this bale and others like it for Florida Fish and Wildlife. A few months ago, lifeguard Skylar White was the first to spot the bale collected by Cross Monday. "We thought it was some junk that washed in or a piece of a dock or some foam," White said. It sat for a few months, thought to be worthless storm debris, before it was realized it could help unlock secrets of history. "It blew my mind. I did not expect to hear that," White said. The most recent bale collected from Brevard County is the second found along the county's shore. Another one washed up about 150 miles south on Palm Beach. All of the bales were taken for testing at a lab in St. Augustine."We're trying to get the word out that if any more are found they can be called in," Cross said. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials say they'll be studying them to be sure, but they believe the bales come from a World War II German supply ship, the S.S. Rio Grande. It was shot down off the coast of Brazil in 1944 and sits three miles below sea level on the ocean floor. Now, 77 years later and more than 3,500 miles away, several similar sightings have been reported over the past year across the state of Florida. "If you think about it, we're probably some of the first ones to touch this bale of rubber other than the Germans from World War II," Cross said. Along with verifying their origin, scientists will trace the bales history by sampling anything they've absorbed — from chemicals to parasites. "I'm excited for the answers," White said. If the bales, in fact, belong to the sunken ship, they'll prove how far marine debris can travel and show just how long processed pollutants can last in the ocean. FWC's marine debris scientists will continue to collect and dissect the bales for the next several weeks. Details on their findings could come sometime in late August.