A 12 mile long glob of goo recently appeared off Alaska's Northern coast, in the Chukchi Sea between Barrow and Wainwright.
(There are rumors that Sarah Palin can see it from her porch.)
With the melting polar ice-caps, many at first suspected that this 'creature' had been released from dormant slumber in a Precambrian tomb of ice.
....Or maybe it was an alien.
Or simply an unknown, wondrous organism that wanders aimlessly in the most remote areas of the oceans. (Whether or not it can actually be considered "wondrous" is debatable. It is reported to be fibrous and hairy to the touch and a lovely shade of putrid sewage black.)
But it is far less sinister than that.
Test results released July 16th show that this is instead it is one of those very annoying, occasionally problematic algae blooms.
(You know...the things that close down public beaches at the most inopportune, frustrating moments? Like when it's 115 degrees out and your air-conditioner breaks down and all the pools in your area are so crowded that all you can see as you stand at the edge of the diving board is a mass of writhing bodies, and so you decide to drive all the way out to the beach even though you live like 50 miles away...and then that beach is closed.
Because of algae.
....I have bad memories of my childhood summers.)
This particular blob of algae is still worrying scientists and Alaskans alike, since this is a very unique bloom that has not been seen before in the region.
Barry Sherr, an Oregon State University professor of Oceanography said in an e-mail to TIME; "The fact that the locals say they've never seen anything like it suggests that it might represent some exotic species which has drifted into the region, perhaps as a result of global change. For the moment, that's just a guess."
Toxicity tests to determine if the algae might be a threat are scheduled for the near future.
(First article here:http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html
Second here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1911517,00.html)
(There are rumors that Sarah Palin can see it from her porch.)
With the melting polar ice-caps, many at first suspected that this 'creature' had been released from dormant slumber in a Precambrian tomb of ice.
....Or maybe it was an alien.
Or simply an unknown, wondrous organism that wanders aimlessly in the most remote areas of the oceans. (Whether or not it can actually be considered "wondrous" is debatable. It is reported to be fibrous and hairy to the touch and a lovely shade of putrid sewage black.)
But it is far less sinister than that.
Test results released July 16th show that this is instead it is one of those very annoying, occasionally problematic algae blooms.
(You know...the things that close down public beaches at the most inopportune, frustrating moments? Like when it's 115 degrees out and your air-conditioner breaks down and all the pools in your area are so crowded that all you can see as you stand at the edge of the diving board is a mass of writhing bodies, and so you decide to drive all the way out to the beach even though you live like 50 miles away...and then that beach is closed.
Because of algae.
....I have bad memories of my childhood summers.)
This particular blob of algae is still worrying scientists and Alaskans alike, since this is a very unique bloom that has not been seen before in the region.
Barry Sherr, an Oregon State University professor of Oceanography said in an e-mail to TIME; "The fact that the locals say they've never seen anything like it suggests that it might represent some exotic species which has drifted into the region, perhaps as a result of global change. For the moment, that's just a guess."
Toxicity tests to determine if the algae might be a threat are scheduled for the near future.
(First article here:http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html
Second here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1911517,00.html)
