12-Mile Blob Of Goo Bobbing In Chukchi Sea, Mystifying Coast Guard & N. Slope Natives Alike - ADN

[hatrack]

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. "It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism." Something else: No one in Barrow or Wainwright can remember seeing anything like this before, Brower said.

EDIT

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

[MineralMan]

1. Interesting. I wonder if there will be followups.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Look for the FOOD SOURCE...what does this bloom eat?....most likely an organic bloom

if its strange...then there was not enough food for expansion...only surviving...held in check by availibility of food...

or, abundance of predators...

Abundance of food is the likely cause....what is this new level of FOOD?

[LynzM]

3. Interesting...

I'm really curious to find out what it is!!

[zbdent]

4. I was unaware that Rush was on vacation ...

[BrklynLiberal]

7. ROTFLMAO!!!! well done!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[OregonBlue]

11. LOL. You gave me my first real chuckle of the day.

[zbdent]

12. just my luck ... I get Duzy-worthy material, and

JeffR said the Duzys were on indefinite hold ...

[hunter]

5. Oh great, we're doomed.

Just you wait until it schlorps ashore and starts eating people. No one will be safe. You'll be asleep in your bed and it will start squeezing through even the smallest gap in your door or window.

This is how nature really handles runaway technological species.

[nykym]

6. BE afraid

the BLOB returns

[phantom power]

8. Goo.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Does it answer to the name "Audrey"?

[bvar22]

10. I know what it is!...I know what it is!!!!

In the 1950s, they froze "The Blob" with CO2 fire extinguishers, loaded it on a cargo plane, and dropped it at the North Pole!

This is obviously "The Blob" all thawed out and ready for action!
Be very afraid.