Unknown Blob of Goo Off Coast of Alaska

Strange Black Goo Grabs Jellyfish and Has Weird Hairy Strands

Written by OddCulture on July 15th, 2009 in Odd Culture.

Tags: bizarre, Odd News, science, travel

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Strange black goo spotted off the coast of Alaska. Not something you want to see when fishing or swimming. But then again, why are you swimming in freezing waters?

Source: Anchorage Daily News:

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. The agencies found “globs” of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing. Later, the North Slope team in a borough helicopter spotted a long strand of the stuff and followed it for about 15 miles.

Eww

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.

Better not go swimming today.

“It’s pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it,” Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose — just bones and feathers — to the borough’s wildlife department. “It kind of has an odor; I can’t describe it,” he said. “From the air it looks brownish with some sheen, but when you get close and put it up on the ice and in the bucket, it’s kind of blackish stuff … (and) has hairy strands on it.”

Test results are expected next week.

You know, this reminds us of that icky scene in Creepshow 2!