As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says (sea "mucus" blob pictures).
And the blobs may be more than just unpleasant.
Up to 124 miles (200 kilometers) long, the mucilages appear naturally, usually near Mediterranean coasts in summer. The season's warm weather makes seawater more stable, which facilitates the bonding of the organic matter that makes up the blobs (Mediterranean map).
Now, due to warmer temperatures, the mucilages are forming in winter too—and lasting for months.
Until now, the light-brown "mucus" was seen as mostly a nuisance, clogging fishing nets and covering swimmers with a sticky gel—newspapers from the 1800s show beach-goers holding their noses, according to study leader Roberto Danovaro, director of the marine science department at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy.
But the new study found that Mediterranean mucilages harbor bacteria and viruses, including potentially deadly E. coli, Danovaro said. Those pathogens threaten human swimmers as well as fish and other sea creatures, according to the report, published September 16 in the journal PloS One.
Blobs Born of "Marine Snow"
A mucilage begins as "marine snow": clusters of mostly microscopic dead and living organic matter, including some life-forms visible to the naked eye—small crustaceans such as shrimp and copepods (copepod picture), for example.
Over time, the snow picks up other tiny hitchhikers, looking for a meal or safety in numbers, and may grow into a mucilage.
The blobs were first identified in 1729 in the Mediterranean, where they're most often seen. The sea's relative stillness and shallowness make the water column more stable, providing ideal conditions for mucilage formation.
via Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger.
Just the name freaks me out, "mucilage". Great name for a horror movie. Voice of the late Donald Leroy LaFontaine:
For years they kept out of sight. They watched us from the depths. And they made their plans. Now, the time of humans is about to end... Now, the Earth will enter ... the Age of the Mucilage
(* Quick flashes of people being eaten by blobs * Blobs attacking New York * Ominous sound effects, like 200 lbs of angry snot *)
... Coming to a theater near you.
2 comments:
A rather interesting formation. Neat picture.
Agreed. Halloween is coming up, and this seems like an X file. That blob looks like a pod. It even seems to have an air tank growing on it!
Depending on the direction of the arrow of time, the diver in the picture could be a fully developed alien hatched from a blob... or the blob could be what remains of a previously digested diver.
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