What "Mystery Goo" Is Killing Birds Off San Francisco's Coast?

Is this mystery Goo the same substance that was reported in Alaska in 2009? the report says the same words oil like but not oil. we do know they are both killing wildlife.

"We have not seen this type of substance before, though preliminary tests have shown it is not petroleum-based," said Barbara Callahan, interim executive director of International Bird Rescue who served as bird unit leader during the 2010 BP oil spill. "Our veterinary and rehabilitation staff is working overtime to ensure all birds transported to us receive optimal emergency care."

io9.com...


Alaska report 2009
www.mcclatchydc.com...

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.

Read more here: www.mcclatchydc.com...=cpy

Well...this is an odd quote from that first article:

"We know its not a public health or safety risk," he said. "It killed the birds because they froze to death. It sapped all the heat out of them. They were not poisoned. They died because of a loss of body heat."

So whatever it is, it is literally sucking the heat out of their bodies?

That sounds like a byproduct of something I don't even really believe in....chemtrails in the sky. Aren't those supposedly there to change the temps/weather? At least from the claims of the ones that believe in them.

Sounds like this could be that same chemical pooling in the ocean/water and "congealing" into a substance that is taking the body heat out of the animals there. From what I have read on chemtrails, they are specifically for changing weather/atmospheric conditions by similar methods...

a reply to: Char-Lee

Whenever they want to cover up some toxic substance wreaking environmental havoc, they always call it "mysterious goo".

There is no substance that can't be analyzed under the sun. Our instruments tell us what it is straightaway…

unless they want to cover it up, that is.

The clue they do give us…

"viscous substance that destroys feather waterproofing"

… is the tell. Only petroleum based products remove the natural oils from the birds skin and plumage.

Just like you clean paint brushes with "lacquer thinner".

If this "unpetroleumlike" product is affecting birds, then it floats on the surface where the birds do, just like oil doo.

This substance is very similar to the "star jelly" that supposedly rained down on Oakville, Washington in 1995. Do any of you remember this being featured on Unsolved Mysteries back in the day? Here is the wiki for "Star jelly":

en.wikipedia.org...

very mysterious substance. Amazing how many times this has been documented since 1800.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

So whatever it is, it is literally sucking the heat out of their bodies?

Aquatic birds protection from their environment is the oil they secret that covers their plumage, providing insulation from the water soaking their feathers and exposing them to the cold. Water and oil don't mix, right? Losing their natural insulation from icy cold water allows hypothermia to set in. I would google that but I'm having a time believing you don't know that already?


Water off a ducks back?

a reply to: tennisdawg

"Star Jelly" is on the ocean floor though, right? Its not floating on the surface where the birds are.

Isn't the star jelly the mucus they exude as they die?

Another "mystery" they still haven't provided an answer for (like they said they would). Hard to miss the birds washing up on the beach though, so they got to say something.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Vasa Croe

So whatever it is, it is literally sucking the heat out of their bodies?

Aquatic birds protection from their environment is the oil they secret that covers their plumage, providing insulation from the water soaking their feathers and exposing them to the cold. Water and oil don't mix, right? Losing their natural insulation from icy cold water allows hypothermia to set in. I would google that but I'm having a time believing you don't know that already?


Water off a ducks back?

Yeah...I understand that. The problem is that the articles point to a couple different labs that have looked at this substance and say that it is not oil, nor can it be taken off the feather how oil is....they say it is more like a rubber cement type substance and very sticky. Their quote was that it was literally sucking the heat out of the body, which to me implies something different from how oil works on feathers...

a reply to: intrptr

Star Jelly obviously has a wide range of interpretations, and I apologize for the confusion. My main point was that a gelatinous substance rained down on Oakville, Washington in 1994-1995. It was documented by many people. The full story is below:

en.wikipedia.org...

Some people called it Star Jelly, others called it the Clear Blobs. The wiki above goes into detail of the health effects that came from some people touching the substance. Very weird, and my best guess is that this town was a test site for some biological warfare agent.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer. The labs have those and it will tell all the elements in the goo. If they aren't telling us, its because they don't want us to know.

I used to dabble in metals. Any element on the earth is identifiable nowadays. Of course, in this case the lab test readouts aren't included in the public eye. Imagner that. Just another environmental "mystery".

If the birds are dying from exposure (hypothermia) the insulating oil on their plumage is compromised.

originally posted by: tennisdawg
a reply to: intrptr

Star Jelly obviously has a wide range of interpretations, and I apologize for the confusion. My main point was that a gelatinous substance rained down on Oakville, Washington in 1994-1995. It was documented by many people. The full story is below:

en.wikipedia.org...

Some people called it Star Jelly, others called it the Clear Blobs. The wiki above goes into detail of the health effects that came from some people touching the substance. Very weird, and my best guess is that this town was a test site for some biological warfare agent.

I see, sorry for not understanding the reference to "star jelly". No lab results about that?

originally posted by: tennisdawg
This substance is very similar to the "star jelly" that supposedly rained down on Oakville, Washington in 1995. Do any of you remember this being featured on Unsolved Mysteries back in the day? Here is the wiki for "Star jelly":

en.wikipedia.org...

very mysterious substance. Amazing how many times this has been documented since 1800.

If you do a search just with the word Goo, amazing amount of odd unexplained stuff started about that time all over the globe!

a reply to: intrptr

Here are the snippets of info that I can find on the lab testings for the gelatinous substance that rained on Oakville, Washington (raises more questions than answers):

On several dates in 1994, "gelatinous rain" fell on Oakville, Washington. The story was featured in a 1995 episode of Unsolved Mysteries.[20] A National Geographic video called "Mystery Goo Rain" advances a conspiracy theory using an interview with microbiologist Mike McDowell, who says he tested the substance and speculated that it was "a matrix" containing Pseudomonas fluorescens and Enterobacter cloacae that could cause illness to those who touched it. In the video, McDowell claims that "the sample went missing" and when he asked the management what happened to it, he was told "Do not ask", leading him to believe "this material was manufactured by someone for some purpose" and that the town "was chosen as a test site".[21]

Several attempts were made to identify the blobs, with Barclift initially asking her mother's doctor to run tests on the substance at the hospital. Little obliged, and reported that it contained human white blood cells. Barclift also managed to persuade Mike Osweiler, of the Washington State Department of Ecology's hazardous materials spill response unit, to examine the substance. Upon further examination by Osweiler's staff, it was reported that the blobs contained cells with no nuclei, which Osweiler noted is something human white cells do have.[7]

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Well...this is an odd quote from that first article:

"We know its not a public health or safety risk," he said. "It killed the birds because they froze to death. It sapped all the heat out of them. They were not poisoned. They died because of a loss of body heat."

So whatever it is, it is literally sucking the heat out of their bodies?

That sounds like a byproduct of something I don't even really believe in....chemtrails in the sky. Aren't those supposedly there to change the temps/weather? At least from the claims of the ones that believe in them.

Sounds like this could be that same chemical pooling in the ocean/water and "congealing" into a substance that is taking the body heat out of the animals there. From what I have read on chemtrails, they are specifically for changing weather/atmospheric conditions by similar methods...

I remember in the Alaskan Goo episode they had said the substance killed everything in its path and ate the bodies...they used those words. I watched but never saw any actual explanation of this particular "goo".

I seem to remember something similar off the UK coast a few years back.
If I remember correctly it was found to be Palm Oil, either flushed from a ship's storage tanks or dumped illegally.

I'm going out on a limb and saying that the "Smug" cloud from South Park condensed and cause smug rain. I would have to assume that smug precipitate, which is a result of a holier-than-thou attitude and therefore sees itself better than water, would rise to top, wreaking havoc on anything it touches.

Mystery. Solved.

Well, they must not be trying too hard to find out what it is. I bet they could get the stuff analyzed at many labs in under a week and they would be accurate as to exactly what it is. There must be some "I don't want to really know" going on here. What if the company causing this is a donator to the cause? Something really fishy about this one. Seems like nobody really gives a tweet. They will just cleaning birds instead of going after big corporations and spending millions on legal fees in the process.

Accredited labs that test for substances are "accredited" because they are certified for what they do. Thats why the "certification".

Its a certificate that denotes accredibility in analyzing substances for clients. It is a reputable laboratory that has responsibility to offer chain of custody and credible analysis of received samples. Just like a DNA or forensic crime lab for police.

They are independent and objectively tasked to return accurate results for their clients. The trouble is sometimes the chain of custody becomes broken from the lab to the public eye.

Another tell… they just say "lab". And other misdirects like "lost samples"--- labs never 'lose' samples, they retain them for legal purposes in case thee arise conflicting results from another lab or litigation.

If you want something analyzed, send the sample yourself and pay through the nose for it, too. When I was having metal samples assayed way aback it cost hundreds each time. That was 25 years ago.

If a lab ever returns a false result they lose their accreditation and their certification just_like_that. So you know they know what these mystery substances are, they have the lab results. They just don't tell us, or make up some excuse.

accredited assay labs

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
I'm going out on a limb and saying that the "Smug" cloud from South Park condensed and cause smug rain. I would have to assume that smug precipitate, which is a result of a holier-than-thou attitude and therefore sees itself better than water, would rise to top, wreaking havoc on anything it touches.

Mystery. Solved.

I think its more like misreporting on the 'smug' cloud.

a reply to: intrptr

I remember that story on unsolved mysteries....saw the story on the news a little bit ago which this thread is about...they said that the substance is clearing ( not see any new birds affected) wonder what the heck this stuff is

a reply to: research100

Even if they released the lab name you can't get anyone there to divulge the test results, thats proprietary information. If you could gather some on the beach and send it in, there is no sure link to whatever is killing the birds. If you find a dead bird with goo on it, there might be some way to find out what it is after testing for cause of death and making sure theres no disease or trauma based reason, like getting shot or old age, whatever.

The biologic testing and the lab testing for chemical compounds would be costly to say the least. The EPA or whomever will conduct the tests because they have tax payer money, need to know and the lab will return confidential results to the agency, then they will press release… nothing as usual.