Big blobs of mystery goo floating off Alaska coast

[babylonsister]

Huge blob of Arctic goo floats past Slope communities

IT'S NOT OIL: No one in the area can recall seeing anything like it before.

By DON HUNTER
[e-mail]

Published: July 14th, 2009 10:54 PM
Last Modified: July 15th, 2009 07:34 AM

Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.


Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.

Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright to investigate. The agencies found "globs" of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.

Later, Brower said, the North Slope team in a borough helicopter spotted a long strand of the stuff and followed it for about 15 miles, shooting video from the air.

The next day the floating substance arrived offshore from Barrow, about 90 miles east of Wainwright, and borough officials went out in boats, collected more samples and sent them off for testing too.

Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not.

"It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.


more...:scared:

http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html



A bucket of a mysterious substance, which the Coast Guard has determined is not oil, was collected off shore of Barrow.

[WI_DEM]

1. Rush?

[zbdent]

45. my god ... he's spawned!

must have been like a single-cell organism does ...

[D-Lee]

71. Not Rush spawn, too much hair! n/t

[Mrs. Overall]

2. The responses to this will be good...

[MorningGlow]

3. In other news,

Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are vacationing together on the Alaskan coast. Rumor has it they're planning on meeting up with a newly unemployed Sarah Palin...

[jakefrep]

4. Sarah needs to tell Todd to stop jerking off in the ocean.

[BlooInBloo]

6. (facepalm)

[lies and propaganda]

13. zomfg!

[mnhtnbb]

ROFL.

:rofl:

[City Lights]

38. Eeeeewwwww. nt

[BlooInBloo]

5. Some kind of bloom?

[Warren DeMontague]

7. It creeps, and leaps.. it glides, and slides...

BEWARE OF THE BLOB!

[charlie]

8. When Newt met Sarah

The heartbreak of premature ejaculation...

[rvablue]

9. Illegal dumping of toxic substances offshore......

it's a clandestine effort to remove all of the bullshit generated from the governor's mansion before Palin leaves in two weeks. :)

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. 1958.

They flew "The Blob" to the arctic, where it would be safe as long as the arctic stayed cold.

Uh oh.

[zbdent]

73. we're doomed ...

Steve McQueen's dead ...

and the ice caps are going to melt ...

[Cheap_Trick]

11. They have found the Palin hatchery

Flop, Crash, Trapper Keeper, and Cessna are waiting to emerge.

[Sal Minella]

66. Not to mention, Tubercle and Topgun.

[Sal Minella]

72. And Trank and Trufflebuns.

[Blue Diadem]

12. OMG did you see the pics?

http://www.adn.com/2835/v-gallery/story/864687.html?/1521/gallery/864688-a864686-t3.html

http://www.adn.com/2835/v-gallery/story/864687.html?/1521/gallery/864688-a864680-t3.html

edited to add: The 2nd pic is gross.

[bertman]

15. That second pic looks like septic tank sludge. Nasty.

[closeupready]

16. Some kind of algae bloom?

??

[X_Digger]

76. Probably cyanobacteria..

.. cold water blooms of cyanobacteria aren't unheard of- especially with a warm front or a warm current incursion into nutrient rich waters.

[Blue_In_AK]

78. That's what I'm thinking it is,

particularly since we are having a very warm summer up here.

[MadBadger]

14. Pieces of Putin's Head? This is what happens when Sarah resigns.

[slampoet]

17. Maybe a "Globster" ? a decayed whale or shark body where the blubber has separated from the rest.

In Cryptozoology circles many of these whale blubber finds have been mistaken for other things like Giant Squid or Loch-ness-type monsters. It has happened so often that they came up with the term "Globster" to describe it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globster

[Mrs. Overall]

21. Now that's a great word.

[KittyWampus]

31. HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!

I am partly impressed and partly bemused...

[slampoet]

33. I have a learning fetish. I get depressed if I go a day w/o learning something.

It was a little embarrassing before the internet when i spent all my time in libraries but now i can do it from home.

i am such a dork. Oh well.

[LeftyMom]

36. Here's a short podcast explaining the phenomenon.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4152

[kenfrequed]

54. Hmm..

But what creature or mass of organisms would be big enough to produce so much of a form?

[madmom]

18. Sarah washed off her make up?

[scheming daemons]

19. Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves....

Letterman and O'Brien must be loving this...

[Uncle Joe]

20. They should check it for methane content, it may be rotted decayed mass floating to the surface

from the warming of the seas.

I'm just speculating but I believe this has probably been at the bottom of the cold shallow arctic ocean for eons, and this may be evidence of the coming methane thaw; from shallow seas and the arctic tundra which will rapidly warm the planet.

[Sal Minella]

24. Looks filamentous, reminds me of freshwater spirogyra

[Uncle Joe]

29. Except for the dark color of this arctic sample.

I would think it doesn't have chlorophyll and depend on photosynthesis.

[Sal Minella]

35. Wondering if it is dead Spirogyra, up until now has been in waters too cold to

allow decomposition, maybe?

Or, the rolling oil blobs and blankets on the ocean floor from oil spills -- wonder if that is ever incorporated into plant life?

Found a better pic -

[Uncle Joe]

39. That's a strong possibility along with decayed animal carcass, but it worries me

nonetheless because I believe it signals or pre-signals one of those global warming climate change tipping points.

As I posted below in response to the whale carcass hypothesis, I believe we will see much more of this.

[Sal Minella]

43. Between the anoxic zones and the increasing biomass of jellyfish,

I find contemplating the seven seas is not nearly as much fun as it used to be.

Actually am filled with dread, but I do try not to be a gloomen doomer.

[Uncle Joe]

48. Likewise, I try not to be a gloomen doomer.

I'm still somewhat optimistic humanity will wake up to what's happening and dramatically alter course for the better, but I'm also of the mind which requires me to look out for signals of an approaching worst case scenario; in order to avoid such a fate.

Peace to you, Sal Minella:hi:

[Sal Minella]

50. And peace to you and yours, Fellow Earthling.

:)

[flvegan]

22. I for one, welcome our new blob overlords.

[d_b]

28. hail!

[asjr]

23. It looks nothing like chocolate pudding.

[Agony]

25. Looks like filamentous algae. nt

[Danascot]

26. It's all that remains of the once formitable GOP

Other guesses:

Discarded Republican values?

Is Blago's hair gel missing?

The Freepers seceded and went adrift?

[wundermaus]

27. Nothing new here, move along... (known since 1958)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyRpvgm03g">"It crawls.... It creeps.... It eats you alive!"

[gratuitous]

67. Yeah, I had a girlfriend like that once

No, twice.

[eppur_se_muova]

68. Could it be ... Thread? nt

[LeftyMom]

30. Decomposing whale. The fiborous strands are a dead giveaway.

[Uncle Joe]

34. I suspect we will see much more of this. n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

42. It's 12 miles long. That's 63,360 feet of carcass. I don't think it's a dead whale.

At least not one dead whale. It'll be interesting to see what it is, but my money is on flora rather than fauna.

[kenfrequed]

57. Agreed

But is it a living mass or a dead one. A very fearful possibility would be a mass phytoplankton die off. But the strands are Waaaaayyy to big for that and phytoplankton has been dying for long time.

[ColbertWatcher]

51. That was my guess too. n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

58. It's over 63,000 feet long. I don't want to see the whale that leaves a 12 mile carcass.

Ever.

[KamaAina]

32. Makeup malfunction?

Sarah, Duchess of Dork :rofl: , has been in that general area recently...

[Deja Q]

37. Bristol's IUD? Or did someone's breast implants plop out?

[ClusterFreak]

40. I can see mystery goo from my house!

:P

[dropkickpa]

41. Great big gobs of of greasy grimy gopher guts

Little dirty birdy feet
french fried eye balls
swimming in a pool of blood"

Ah, childhood songs were so sweet.

[Peacetrain]

59. Don't forget the chorus..."And I forgot my spoon"

Ranks right up there with "Found a Peanut"... ;)

[omega minimo]

44. The Democrats "balls" -- floated off, dissolved, slimed back to shore.....

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

46. igoo?

[alfredo]

47. Looks like what I got out of the bathtub drain.

[Mz Pip]

49. Sarah still has

a few days left as Governor. She should definitely deal with this as her last official duty to the State of Alaska.

Do your job Sarah, and save Alaska from the sea goo.

[Odin2005]

52. Rotting algae?

Like others have said, may be Spirogyra, the consistency of the fibers fit.

[bananas]

53. It's the black slime they warned us about in the x-files.

[The Straight Story]

55. until proven otherwise, it is satan

:)

[kimmerspixelated]

69. Yes, or indirectly Satanic.

We have done evil upon the oceans, the earth,...and the evil has come back to GET US!

[Stevenmarc]

56. Sarah's weave fell out

[elehhhhna]

61. DUZY!!1!

[Geek_Girl]

60. I'm guessing algae

nt

[undeterred]

62. POOP.

Any two year old could identify that.

[Xenotime]

63. This is what happens when we rip up the fucking planet, people!!

[kimmerspixelated]

64. It's just the start of a major big dump Mother Earth

is having to take, since we crap on her constantly everyday!

[aikoaiko]

65. I've seen that on the X-Files.

\


we're fooked.

[blogslut]

70. Maybe it's Ambergris

Or biliary excretion from some other sea creatures.

[Sal Minella]

74. Perhaps a little off-topic. Perhaps not. We don't know yet.....

[AnnieBW]

75. The Real Reason that Sarah's resigning

She's getting out of Alaska before the blob rises up out of the depths and reveals itself to be Cthulhu.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

77. I hope it's not whales.

They seem to be sure it is organic.... :scared:

[SoCalDem]

79. FOUND: RNC cosmetics purchased for Sarah

:)

[KittyWampus]

80. kick

[RaleighNCDUer]

81. We've all heard of the giant fungi in various parts of the world - there's

one in Oregon, I think it is, that covers more than 2000 acres.

Perhaps this is a previously undiscovered submarine version, living on or under the ocean floor, and was dislodged by earthquake or rising methane deposits or some such.

[Habibi]

82. Didn't Stephen King write about this in "The Raft"?

[Jennicut]

84. Yes! It totally reminds me of that....creepy.

[Vidar]

83. Coming soon to the "SyFy" channel.