Black Blobs in the Arctic and now Florida...is there a connection?

I just read...

3,000+ foot long mysterious black blob of killer “toxic goo” found near Florida coast — Appears to be GROWING

Florida Oil Spill Law

I remember another 'Black Blob' here...
Anchorage Daily News

I was wondering if these two are related in some way, as there was a big spill in the Arctic as well in the past... If so, what could it mean??? I'm still trying to comprehend all this. Does anyone know of any 'new' news on the blob in the Arctic? Something to ponder on....

Sorry if this was already posted in advance...and look forward to what you all have to say about these 'Black Blobs'...

reply to post by ForestForager


Have you found anything goo on test results from the AK goo from last year?
My god this is terrifying! it looks like the whole oceon has become so fouled up it can make the stuff found in sluggish water like swamps!

reply to post by ForestForager


That's pretty scary. My fiance has been wanting us to move to Florida and stories like this don't give me the incentive to do so.

3,000 ft long blob that looks like oil but the consistancy is different - my thoughts would be perhaps it is from the BP oil spill and it is different because it was mixed with dispersants. Wonder if they have any ideas on how to get rid of this blob or should they even try - it sounds very poisonous and damaging to the environment.


Goo from the sky, blobs in the ocean - all sounds unnatural and frightening to me.

Heck of a find!

They are definitely related.. IMO..

This is really strange..Maybe it is mother earth giving her waters a cleaning... Or....... it is some super scary biological nightmare, that is going to take over the planet...

Exciting stuff.. I'll be staying tuned.

reply to post by Char-Lee


You made me think a little more. Star for you... Swamps act as the Earth's kidneys to filter out pollutants... are they failing or have they failed? Lots of swamps surround the Mississippi River which drains in to the Gulf of Mexico... if they (the kidneys) failed or are failing, all those pollutants would filter in the Gulf...

Societies now generally understand that swamps are critically important in the processes of providing fresh water and oxygen to all life

Swamps - Wikipedia

The Wetlands: Earth's Kidneys

A lot of the recent fish die offs have been from low Oxygen levels...

Here is a vid of the Arctic one... The arctic one seems to be visible on the surface of the water... where as far as I can tell the Florida one is submerged or under the water (for now)... Despite the difference... What if the Arctic Blob formed underwater and only became visible on the surface recently (past few years) because of slow growth in the colder climate... Perhaps this blob in Florida will evolve more rapidly and become larger due to the warmer climate?

I thank those for their replies...

I'm just trying to connect the dots. What if we created the environment for these blobs... and perhaps they are fungal... fungi/molds have been known to live under water... read some of the replies here...
Answerbag
And I know this true as I'm an avid mushroom hunter and subscribe to The Fungi magazine.

Perhaps this is fungal infection of sorts...? Fungi often have mycelium in the ground perhaps this was a dormant fungi until we started drilling in certain areas??? I'm thinking if it is fungal, it has to be in the slime/mold family. Any thoughts on this approach? Not seen many replies, ideas, help, answers, questions, etc... so I'm going off on my own, lol.

Just found this as well...Arctic Blob 2010 A dead zone due to algae growth... wasn't there already a problem with that in the GoM due to the pollutants pouring out of the Mississippi (red tide?)? Could this magnify events this summer???

reply to post by crazydaisy


From link posted above...

Indeed, the blob was not oil, tests revealed. It was a massive bloom of algae, similar to those that affect the Northeastern U.S. coast and the Gulf Coast

Even though black algae grow slowly, it is best to fix the problem as soon as you notice it. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.

Black Algae



I am off to bed now. Be back tomorrow around 3pm CST to see if there's any progress here on ideas...

Ewie...wormwood!
New International Version (©1984)
the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

It seems this event of a "Black Blob" in Florida has happened before... not on this scale however... the 'Black Blob' being reported now is 4-5 times larger then the previous...
The Independent

According to National Geographic at that time (2002 event)

After their extensive preliminary research, the scientists think they have a basic understanding of the phenomenon, although they don't yet know why it formed. Pierce said the evidence so far—obtained from satellite imagery, nutrient analysis, and organic matter—suggests that the formation is a very unusual phytoplankton bloom.

They claim it wasn't toxic at the time like the 'Red Tide' blooms... perhaps, these phytoplankton absorbed some oil and core-exit and evolved to become toxic? It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming months.

Time.com : Alaska Blob

"It's sort of like a swimming pool that hasn't been cleaned in a while."

How does one clean the oceans? ...more chemicals? Gods help us! It is obvious we have pee'd/polluted one too many times in to the earths waters... If a pool gets bad you can drain it and clean it... if an ocean goes bad... ... ...

Edit: I'm having problems finding any recent updates on the Alaskan Blob... is it still there? Can anyone help out here and calm my mind? I know there are people out there!

Thinking about 'Black Blobs' again and remember this cartoon... Fern Gully: The Last Rain Forest... skip to 07:00



And skip to 01:00 in this one...


Or just watch it all, I enjoyed the cartoon when I was a child myself. Still, the blob was released from a tree during deforestation in the cartoon... we release blobs from the ground while drilling in real life???

Edit: Another link describing the current Florida Black Blob...
UPI - Strange floating 'blob' found off Florida...

Scientists say an underwater blob of goo off the Florida Panhandle coast isn't oil, but rather a mass of dead plankton, algae and bacteria.

...appears to be growing as microscopic algae and bacteria get trapped in it and die...

okay... so it's not algae??? 'It' is a mass of algae, bacteria, and plankton, that 'It' trapped and caused to die...or...it ate them?!

Originally posted by ForestForager
It seems this event of a "Black Blob" in Florida has happened before... not on this scale however... the 'Black Blob' being reported now is 4-5 times larger then the previous...

Umm, cancel that comment... lol. 'It' is not that large yet and has a ways to go... but 'It' could get to that size fast I'm thinking, if 'It' doesn't die off...whatever 'It' is.

Another article stating...

"It seems to be a combination of algae and bacteria," said David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer with the University of South Florida, describing the substance as "extraordinarily sticky" and toxic.

Herald Tribune News Article

And a more recent article here at Aquatic Community states...

Hollander and his team are planning to return to the blob within a few weeks to gather more samples, since they were unable to get any material from the bottom of the blob during their last visit. They will also try to map out the entire blob to be able to see exactly how big it is.

So no one really knows how big or threatening this thing could be yet... but we may know more in a few weeks... I hope this story doesn't get dropped like the Alaskan Blob... I'm still trying figure out if it's still hanging around up there.

Well, not much in the way of news on the Florida Blob, but here's some comments from another article...

John Paul, a professor of biological oceanography, tested the waters from the mud and they came back, in his words, "toxic as all bejesus."

So how toxic is "toxic as all bejesus"??

Hollander's tests are ongoing and definitive results will take weeks. All he knows is that a whole lot of marine organisms died and formed a "toxic marine tumble weed," rolling around on the ocean floor until the Weatherbird team happened to poke it. Which kind of makes you wonder: what else are those supposedly healthy waves hiding?

So it's moving around like a "toxic tumble weed" killing and accumulating more mass as it "tumbles" around?

SOURCE

I've emailed David Hollander in a request for updates/information, but I can not say if I will get a response or not... Only time will tell... Until then I will search daily for new updates. I just hope this story doesn't get completely dropped before we know what it exactly is, composed of, how toxic, current position, direction headed, etc... I mean...
...
What scares me more is how the Alaskan Blob was so quickly dropped after being supposedly "Solved!" ...

Artic Blob Found To Be Massive Bloom Of Algae,

Originally posted by tothetenthpower

So far in Alaska, nothing suggests the Chukchi Sea blob is toxic, although the Coast Guard's Hasenauer said toxicity tests were planned.

Well at least it's not going to kill anybody, hopefully.

Any thoughts ATS?

~Keeper

Did those 'toxicity tests' ever come back? Still 'Black Algae'??? Black Algae is a confusing problem to me, as when one looks it up in a search engine you get a bunch of results related to pools and aquariums... There isn't much documented on 'Black Algae' in a more world scale environment beyond the 'Black Blobs'... Usually the color being 'black' isn't good... we condemn houses and burn them down, for 'Black Mold' growths... Besides all that... what ever happened to the Alaskan Black Blob??? Where is it now??? Did it die off or move along???

Past ATS Threads on The Great Alaskan Blob
Giant Mystery Blob Moves Through Alaska...
Big Blobs of Mystery Goo Floating Off...
There are others too if you search... not too many of them, and all end abruptly with out any further information relating to the conditions of the 'Alaskan Blob'... Wouldn't you like know what happened with this massive thing??? Just thinking out loud here...