Toxic blob drifting in Gulf mystifies scientists

[Barrett808]

From a distance the toxic goo looks like oil, but up close it smells like rotten eggs and wiggles like jelly. Scientists have no idea what it is or how it wound up in the northern Gulf of Mexico, near Perdido Pass.

Just off the Florida Panhandle coastline, within site of Perdido Key, an underwater mass of dead sea life that appears to be growing as microscopic algae and bacteria get trapped and die has been found by scientists.

Early samples indicate the glob is at least 3 feet thick and spans two-thirds of a mile parallel to the coast.

No one knows where it came from or where it will go.

Scientists are trying to determine if oil from last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster led to the glob. But tests so far have found no sign of oil.

"It seems to be a combination of algae and bacteria," said David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer with the University of South Florida, describing the substance as "extraordinarily sticky" and toxic. ...

Toxic blob drifting in Gulf mystifies scientists

[Cleita]

1. Let's just say for the sake of argument that the

Gulf oil spill and subsequent pumping of the chemical corexit created the conditions that allowed an organism to grow unfettered because the organisms that kept it under control were killed by either the oil or the cure. Then wouldn't the spill be the direct cause? I'm sure the oil companies will deny it but it's too convenient that it would appear after the spill.

[jpak]

2. Cthulhu awakes!

:scared:

[Barrett808]

3. Wake up, L'il Cthulhu!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHJUrcVdJk

[jpak]

4. Similar "blobs" have been observed in the Mediterranean for some time

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091008-giant-sea-mucus-blobs.html

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Yep, "sea snot". nt

[Peace Patriot]

5. "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature...". (Remember that commercial, oldies?)

I was thinking, I wonder if that Blob could quickly evolve intelligence, given the man-made accelerants that have been introduced? It senses the genetic signature of the dinosaurs, starts reproducing, gets smart, starts idly wondering about things in general and one day connects the dots--dinosaurs, oil, man, drill platforms--realizes where it came from and rises from the ocean, its gigantic intelligent microbial head thinking "Grand Illusion" thoughts and attacks the Texas coast.

Stranger things have happened.

-------

And you know what? I think we're going to survive after all. You know why? Because of our sense of humor (which we got from the Dolphins).

[Nihil]

13. "I wonder if that Blob could quickly evolve intelligence ..."

I sometimes wonder if humans could do the same ...

:P

[WingDinger]

6. Can't splain, Bullsquat. They are anaerobic organisms. The sludge has

shoved out the oxygen.

[LiberalEsto]

7. Rush is on vacation again nt

[Jokinomx]

9. lol.. I laughed... however

The blob floating in sea seems to have a bit of intelligence.

:toast:

[MisterP]

10. it's Solaris: that's how the colloidal planet-ocean-brain started

[Systematic Chaos]

11. Just read "Under a Green Sky" by Peter Ward.

Should answer everyone's questions.

[Barrett808]

12. Word. n/t

[NickB79]

17. Crap, forgot about that

Up next: hydrogen sulfide gas clouds wafting onto shore as the algae decomposes, killing anything in their path.

Oh wait: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6740746.ece

[Nihil]

14. A lot of people seem to have missed this bit in the OP ...

> an underwater mass of dead sea life that appears to be growing as
> microscopic algae and bacteria get trapped and die

To state it openly: it isn't growing through being "alive", through being
"an anoxic organism", through being a mutation fed on Corexit or any of the other
bullshit, it is "growing" (i.e., increasing in size) through accretion.

This post is supplied as a service to people who apparently think that an
oil slick grows wings, fins, beaks, legs and other appendages when what has
actually happened is that organisms possessing said appendages get trapped
by the oil slick and die ... thus enabling the oil-slick to "grow" ...

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Though you've missed this bit:

"tests so far have found no sign of oil"

So calling it "the oil slick" is inaccurate. Oil in the Gulf (not necessarily as a slick - perhaps dispersed) may have fed some of the dead organisms, when they were alive.

[Nihil]

16. I wasn't suggesting it actually was an oil-slick ...

My reference to the oil-slick was intended to be an analogy with regard to
the difference between growing (in the sense of living & thriving) and growing
(in the sense of dead yet accreting other dead things).

Sorry that I wasn't clear.

[Javaman]

18. Project Arrowhead. nt