Mysterious blob floating in Chukchi Sea

[Bryan With a 'Y']

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

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.

This just reminded me how much I miss the days of the Weekly World News. I'd be going through the checkout line surrounded by depressing headlines of nasty celebrity gossip and photos taken by paparazzi who stalked someone for days looking for the least flattering angle. But right there in the middle was that lovely black and white photo of Satan's face billowing out of an oil fire, and always, of course, our hero and savior, Bat Boy.

So now, out of a sense of obligation to the rest of the world, as a break from the ceaseless coverage of Alaska's most overexposed public figure, I give you instead Alaska's Mysterious Blob of Goo.

[Richard W]

Brower said it wouldn't necessarily surprise him if the substance turns out to be some sort of naturally occurring phenomenon...

Wouldn't necessarily surprise him? That makes it sound as though he thinks it isn't... I mean, what else would it be, if they've ruled out an oil slick?

[dfresh]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Wouldn't necessarily surprise him? That makes it sound as though he thinks it isn't... I mean, what else would it be, if they've ruled out an oil slick?

Aliens, of course.

[DemonWolf]

Originally Posted by Bryan With a 'Y'

[url="http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html"]
This just reminded me how much I miss the days of the Weekly World News.

In that case, you will be pleased to know that they have not gone out of existence, they have merely changed to an online-only format.

Batboy lives on!

[DemonWolf]

Originally Posted by Richard W

I mean, what else would it be, if they've ruled out an oil slick?

Industrial waste? The congealed remains of a large number of dead jellyfish?

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Hmm, has anyone seen Joe Biden?

[Shnoops]

Maybe it's the Prince of Darkness? He may be a few years too early, but not if he intends on putting a campaign together for a presidential run. Vote for the apocalypse in 2012.

[tagurit]

Do post updates when they identify it, Bryan. I'm curious to know what the heck it is.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Richard W

Wouldn't necessarily surprise him? That makes it sound as though he thinks it isn't... I mean, what else would it be, if they've ruled out an oil slick?

Could've been some sort of manmade waste.

If there were not so much of it, I might have thought it was ambergris - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambergris

It still might be some version of ambergris if a whole pod of sperm whales had gotten into eating unusual things because of lack of squid for some reason.

[starfury]

I want to know if there's an abandoned ship in the middle of it..

[CSGirl]

The people on the aquarium board I'm on seem to be on board with the algae bloom theory.

[Simply Madeline]

Wonkette thinks it's the result of Sarah Palin removing her make-up.

OMG, they hate Trig!

[Cat Grey]

I'm waiting to hear whether it eats the researchers, and then the laboratory, in Anchorage.

Personally, I'm hoping for a zombie apocalypse, but "giant blobby thing eats the world" works, too.

Cat "What equipment do you use for blob defense, anyway?" Grey

[A Turtle Named Mack]

I think I have solved what this "Blobby" thing is - http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Mr._Blobby

[Magpye]

Originally Posted by Cat Grey

I'm waiting to hear whether it eats the researchers, and then the laboratory, in Anchorage.

It's not anywhere near us, fortunately. It's close to 700 air miles north of Anchorage, in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska. It will have lots of other things to eat on its way here... perhaps it will be satiated by the time it shows up.

[Johnny Slick]

Now that Sarah Palin is unemployed, perhaps it's the Future Blob!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8M-GKmVgeo

[Magpye]

Mysterious blob identified.

A sample of the giant black mystery blob that Wainwright hunters discovered this month floating in the Chukchi Sea has been identified.

It looks to be a stringy batch of algae. Not bunker oil seeping from an aging, sunken ship. Not a sea monster.

"We got the results back from the lab today," said Ed Meggert of the Department of Environmental Conservation in Fairbanks. "It was marine algae."

Unless it's carniverous algae, I think we're safe.

[Bryan With a 'Y']

Yeah, I figured it was going to be the algae theory. Looks like we had some good alternatives, though.

Sorry, Bat Boy. It was fun while it lasted.

Although I preferred this quote from the article:

Terry Whitledge is director of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He hasn't had a chance to look at the DEC's sample yet, but a friend with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration e-mailed him a picture of the gunk.

"Filamentous algae," he concluded.

Filamentous?

"It means it's just stringy."

[ButterscotchCat]

Originally Posted by Cat Grey

"What equipment do you use for blob defense, anyway?"

If I recall correctly, you have to lure it into an ice skating rink so you can freeze it to death.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by Cat Grey

Cat "What equipment do you use for blob defense, anyway?" Grey

Don't you watch movies? You have to use flamethrowers and nuclear weapons.