ENVIRONMENT NEWS
July 20, 2009
A Mysterious Blob
A large blob is floating in Alaska's icy waters and it has residents worried
A group of hunters in a small boat saw it first: a black, hairy mass floating in the waters off northwest Alaska. The mysterious spot stretched for miles in the cold and shallow Chukchi Sea. What was it? An oil slick? A new species of plant? An alarming sign of global warming?
 |  COURTESY NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH A sample of the dark mass was scooped up for lab tests. |
The worried hunters reported the gooey spot to the U.S. Coast Guard. Two oil spill experts flew over the mass. They also got close to it by boat. "We responded as if it were an oil product," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Terry Hasenauer. "It was described to us as an oil-like substance, thick and lingering below the surface of the water."
People from the village of Barrow, Alaska, scooped up jars of the stuff to study in a lab. Last Thursday, test results showed that the blob wasn't oil, but a plant. It's a massive bloom of algae. That may seem less dangerous than oil, but many of the Inupiat Eskimos who live along Alaska's northern coast still worry. They say they've never seen anything like this before and aren't sure what to make of it.
A Poisonous Plant?Brenda Konar, a marine biology professor in Alaska, is less worried. She said that algae grows even in the icy Arctic waters. "Algae blooms," she said. "It's sort of like a swimming pool that hasn't been cleaned for a while."
Algae is common along coastlines. Some can close beaches, or even poison seafood. Although this one may be harmless, tests are planned to see if it's poisonous. Luckily for the Alaskans, the big blob is staying away from the shoreline. It is slowly drifting farther and farther out to sea.
