Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger (Nat Geo) {yes, global warming is involved}

[eppur_se_muova]

Christine Dell'Amore
National Geographic News

October 8, 2009

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As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says (sea "mucus" blob pictures).
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Up to 124 miles (200 kilometers) long, the mucilages appear naturally, usually near Mediterranean coasts in summer. The season's warm weather makes seawater more stable, which facilitates the bonding of the organic matter that makes up the blobs (Mediterranean map).

Now, due to warmer temperatures, the mucilages are forming in winter too—and lasting for months.

Until now, the light-brown "mucus" was seen as mostly a nuisance, clogging fishing nets and covering swimmers with a sticky gel—newspapers from the 1800s show beach-goers holding their noses, according to study leader Roberto Danovaro, director of the marine science department at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy.

But the new study found that Mediterranean mucilages harbor bacteria and viruses, including potentially deadly E. coli, Danovaro said. Those pathogens threaten human swimmers as well as fish and other sea creatures, according to the report, published September 16 in the journal PloS One.
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more: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091008-giant-sea-mucus-blobs.html (incl. video)

paper cited: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007006

pix: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007006




(You may have seen this on the Rachel Maddow Show yesterday.)

[liberal N proud]

1. Maybe the sci-fi movies about the Blob are not so far off

[Sinti]

2. OMG - we've given the oceans pneumonia...

We're going to have to find a way to proactively clean up our mess or die fairly soon - just look at the dead zones and red tides - plus the air/oxygen levels in most cities. I guess we could always build domed cities, with pumped in air and filtered water a la Total Recall.