Mysterious red slime found in Norwegian fjord

Looks like the jelly some marine animals secrete to protect their eggs. You see large concentration of stuff like this during the breeding seasons, although I haven't quite seen anything of that particular colour or density.

There was the problem years ago with slime on the surface of the water, covering oceans. Forget what they are called, slim fish maybe, but as a defense mechanism they secrete mucus (like our defense mechanism snot) so predators won't eat them, they tie themselves in knots to secrete more mucus.

Maybe this is a new form of that.

Looking at the picture further I can't see how it can be algae...or a by product of it. To me it looks more like a protective jelly for reproduction, with a very small chance of defense mechanism.

a reply to: Sennex
Why you fool, doom merchant. Everyone knows that Martian red weed is only on the land not the sea.

a reply to: Sennex

It were politicians and bankers are born.

I'd be careful what you tend to call it. It could be very touchy.

Should we be worried that the Shoggoths have arrived in Norway?

Maybe there was some truth to Lovecraft.

a reply to: laminatedsoul

Actually, it doesn't mean literally that 'angels will kill the oceans'...

...because it is supposed to be a vision (and not saying it truly was), it is really that he is being 'shown by the angel' what will happen at a certain time -

- which could then 'translate' as something like, 'this is how it will look (blood and death) when the oceans are killed' (by whatever means, man or otherwise)..

Sorry, you kicked my 'know-it-all' gene into action

a reply to: LevelHeaded

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fthagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Found some more information.

Google translate

It appears that the Institute of Marine Research think it is dead and dying jellyfish, but they want to analyse their samples to be sure.
What is translated as "ribbed jellyfish" should be "comb jellies" (Ctenophora)

New or updated info from the news site: Google Translate

Seems like they rule out both martians and shoggoths, but the implication for local fisheries are not exactly good...

a reply to: Sennex

Good news that it's a natural process, but terrible news for the fishermen. I wonder how long it will take before the fish will come back?

originally posted by: Sennex
a reply to: LevelHeaded

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fthagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Let us all hope His dreaming never ends.

On topic - a giant pile of dead jellies.

Is this something that would "clean up" itself? The jellies would decay over time?

originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: Sennex

Good news that it's a natural process, but terrible news for the fishermen. I wonder how long it will take before the fish will come back?

This is a natural occurrence?

Then why does no one know what it is, and why are they saying they "think" it is dead jelly fish, but won't be sure until their research is complete?

It doesn't sound so natural to me.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Jellyfish feed on zooplankton and autumn there will be less food. A natural life cycle of jellyfish is that they bloom up in the summer and has tremendous growth during the autumn. Until dinner plate becomes smaller. Some of them overwinter down at the bottom, but most will die during the winter, explains Fosså. - But we have said that proviso. We are waiting for the samples so that we get this exactly examined. But we believe at least ribbed jellyfish cause.

I read that as it's natural for the jellyfish to die in winter, and that the oceanographers are just being cautious before announcing for certain that the slime is decaying jellyfish. They said it's happened before in another area of Norway. What is not clear is why they were all in there in the first place?

Might be related to this about jellyfish in that area last year?

The fjord now holds an estimated 40,000 tons of these round, red-colored, sea creatures.

And this invasive species is impacting local fishing stocks.

Jarle Mork, a professor and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, has been studying the effects of the booming number of jellyfish.

"They are very efficient predators," Mork says. "The population can grow to huge sizes in relatively few years. And they eat the same food as the young stages of the commercial fishes. And in addition they eat small and young stages of those competitors."

Perhaps this is just the end results of what this article is about.

More from Wiki.

Current ecological problems

In many fjords of Norway the helmet jelly has proliferated since the 1970s. It has become a competitor of fish for food and is thereby also a threat for the fishing industry. These jellyfish should have been deprived of their own food basis by displacement by almost all other sea creatures, yet the medusae swarms still live. The cause is being studied at this time by marine biologist Ulf Båmstedt. Also not far from Bergen, in the Lurefjord, helmet jellies have proliferated. The objective is to find a possible explanation for the new mass development. The ecology and population dynamics will be investigated by Norwegian and American work groups. The ontogeny, in particular the development of pigmentation, luminescence, food absorption and sense capacity, will be researched in a Hamburg work group.

originally posted by: Blaine91555
Might be related to this about jellyfish in that area last year?

The fjord now holds an estimated 40,000 tons of these round, red-colored, sea creatures.

And this invasive species is impacting local fishing stocks.

Jarle Mork, a professor and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, has been studying the effects of the booming number of jellyfish.

"They are very efficient predators," Mork says. "The population can grow to huge sizes in relatively few years. And they eat the same food as the young stages of the commercial fishes. And in addition they eat small and young stages of those competitors."

Perhaps this is just the end results of what this article is about.

Thank you. My thinking went toward a normal occurrence rather than a natural process.

Maybe it is an omen.

A prime example of what happens when huge masses arrive and diminish limit resources faster than they can be reproduced.

So i see no has mentioned yet but there is a niche business here,package it up and sell it to the Asian countries as a delicacy ....$$$ who's in ?

On a serious not that is a rather disturbing nature is quite out of balance in some areas,waiting on more info on this...

Thx for sharing OP