Giant Mystery Blob Moves Through Alaskan Waters

[Abbie Normal]

t's big, it's black, it's gooey and it may be alive.

Giant blobs of thick, oily biological material are floating in the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

"It's certainly biological," Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer told the newspaper. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter."

No one in the North Slope towns of Barrow and Wainwright can recall ever seeing anything like it.

Jellyfish and sea birds are getting caught up in the sticky, stinky stuff, which according to one official "has hairy strands on it."

"It's definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it's some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism," added Hasenauer.

Pictures
http://www.adn.com/arctic-alaska/v-gallery/story/864687.html?/1521/gallery/864688.html

No Palin jokes please.

We are under attack.

[SpiralEye]

It's the creature from Creepshow 2!

[Lotis]

Well, I do have a sudden urge to start singing the theme to the blob.

But seriously, I saw footage of it last night on the news. I didn't see the whole segment but just as I was tuning in they were saying something about having pulled the skeletal remains of a duck out of it, like they were implying it had been ingested.

Creepy, it's like something out of a Stephen King novel or an X-Files episode. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Lotis_/smilies/blob.gif

[Pentangeli]

Your Russian friends giving Palin something to look at.

[The Postmaster General]

Oh, that's where that went!

[outsyder]

Did they try the "poke it with a stick" test?

[Mr.HyDe807]

I guess that Reverend from The Blob remake is finally putting his plans into motion.

[countchocula]

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n34/mortis45/fragsraft.jpg

[Abbie Normal]

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n34/mortis45/fragsraft.jpg

Is that one of those Creepshow episodes? The one where a guy take a peek at his girl's tit and then her face is being sucked off by that swamp blob thing?

[The Postmaster General]

In related news, Oprah Winfrey had her first orgasm earlier this week.

[ericdraven]

I think that is a oil cluster.

[countchocula]

The two posts above this one go together nicely.

Abbie: Yes.

[Lotis]

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j310/rsdotcom/icons/ewww.png


I think "The Raft" was Creepshow 2. That's the ep where the kids park by a lake and float out to the middle of it on the raft but can't make it back because the blob-thing will get them.

[Abbie Normal]

We are still under attack!

SAN DIEGO (July 17) - Jumbo flying squid — aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles — have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.
The carnivorous calamari, which can grow up to 100 pounds, came up from the depths last week and swarms of them roughed up unsuspecting divers. Some divers report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear.
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They Came From the DeepLenny Ignelzi, AP4 photos Giant squid ripped the light hose from Shanda Magill's diving gear last week. Here, Magill holds the equipment that was attacked. She manages a dive shop in San Diego, where thousands of the aggressive sea creatures began prowling the shallow coastal waters.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)

Stories of too-close encounters with the alien-like cephalopods have chased many veteran divers out of the water and created a whirlwind of excitement among the rest, who are torn between their personal safety and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to swim with the deep-sea giants.
The so-called Humboldt squid are native to the deep waters off Mexico, where they have been known to attack humans and are nicknamed "red devils" for their rust-red coloring and mean streak. Those who dive with them there chum the water with bait and sometimes get in a metal cage or wear chain mail to avoid being lashed by tentacles.
The squid hunt in schools of up to 1,200, can swim up to 15 mph and can skim over the water to escape predators.
"I wouldn't go into the water with them for the same reason I wouldn't walk into a pride of lions on the Serengeti," said Mike Bear, a local diver. "For all I know, I'm missing the experience of a lifetime."
The squid are too deep to bother swimmers and surfers, but many longtime divers say they are staying out of the surf until the sea creatures clear out. Yet other divers, including Shanda Magill, couldn't resist the chance to see the squid up close.
On a recent night, Magill watched in awe as a dozen squid with doleful, expressive eyes circled her group, tapping and patting the divers and gently bumping them before dashing away.
One especially large squid suspended itself motionless in the water about three feet away and peered at her closely, its eyes rolling, before it vanished into the black. A shimmering incandescence rippled along its body, almost as if it were communicating through its skin.
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But the next night, things were different: A large squid surprised Magill by hitting her from behind and grabbing at her with its arms, pulling her sideways in the water. The powerful creature ripped her buoyancy hose away from her chest and knocked away her light.
When Magill recovered, she didn't know which direction was up and at first couldn't find the hose to help her stay afloat as she surfaced. The squid was gone.
"I just kicked like crazy. The first thing you think of is, 'Oh my gosh, I don't know if I'm going to survive this. If that squid wanted to hurt me, it would have," she said.
Other divers have reported squid pulling at their masks and gear and roughing them up.
Roger Uzun, a veteran scuba diver and amateur underwater videographer, swam with a swarm of the creatures for about 20 minutes and said they appeared more curious than aggressive. The animals taste with their tentacles, he said, and seemed to be touching him and his wet suit to determine if he was edible.
"As soon as we went underwater and turned on the video lights, there they were. They would ram into you, they kept hitting the back of my head," he said.
"One got ahold of the video light head and yanked on it for two or three seconds and he was actually trying to take the video light with him," said Uzun, who later posted a 3-minute video with his underwater footage on YouTube. "It almost knocked the video camera out of my hands."
Scientists aren't sure why the squid, which generally live in deep, tropical waters off Mexico and Central America, are showing up off the Southern California coast — but they are concerned.
In recent years, small numbers have been spotted from California to Sitka, Alaska and are increasingly being spotted off the San Diego coastline — an alarming trend that scientists believe could be caused by anything from global warming to a shortage of food or a decline in the squid's natural predators.
In 2005, a similar invasion off San Diego delighted fishermen and, in 2002, thousands of jumbo flying squid washed up on the beaches here. That year, workers removed 12 tons of dead and dying squid.
This summer, the wayward squid have also been hauled up by fisherman in waters off Orange County, just north of San Diego.

[APzombie]

also, there is an unknown biological organism in North Carolina Sewer

here is a creepy video of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcKpx2DxGwY

[Lotis]

Especially creepy when they respond to the light.

According to this website (http://tinyurl.com/mpftns):

Ed Buchan, environmental coordinator at the Raleigh Public Utilities Department, said staff biologists have confirmed that the “creature” is actually a colony of tubifex worms. The colonies attach themselves to roots that gradually work themselves into weak points in the pipes.

“They seem to respond to the light from the camera,” Buchan said. “That light is pretty hot.”

The worms naturally occur in sewage and pond sediment and are actually sold both live and dried as fish food in pet stores

There's more info about the NC colonies here (http://tinyurl.com/nllu28).

I don't care what they are, still creepy. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Lotis_/smilies/blob.gif

[FLAME_ON]

Especially creepy when they respond to the light.

According to this website (http://tinyurl.com/mpftns):



There's more info about the NC colonies here (http://tinyurl.com/nllu28).

I don't care what they are, still creepy. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Lotis_/smilies/blob.gif

I'm so happy that shit lives in our pipes!

[APzombie]

the alaskan blob is algie

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090718/us_time/08599191151700

[g1ng3rsnap9ed]

What the heck!? What's with all the Smilies in this Thread that I don't know how to use!? I'm so jealous of that "Eew" Picket Smilie...bastards. :mad:

[God of War]

Rosie Odonnel? :p

[FLAME_ON]

http://beenbad.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/tarman-1.jpg

[God of War]

BRAINS!

MORE BRAINS!!!

Love that movie :D

[Sgizzy316]

is it Venom from Spider-Man?

[g1ng3rsnap9ed]

is it Venom from Spider-Man?

The Tar Man, from Return of the Living Dead...DUH!!! :D

[Lotis]

What the heck!? What's with all the Smilies in this Thread that I don't know how to use!? I'm so jealous of that "Eew" Picket Smilie...bastards. :mad:

Don't be jealous, they're my own. I'm a smilies junkie, I've got tons of 'em. :D

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Lotis_/smilies/hijack.gif http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Lotis_/smilies/thmaniacal.gif http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j310/rsdotcom/icons/jabba.gif http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j310/rsdotcom/icons/hal.gif http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j310/rsdotcom/icons/titanic.gif http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/Lotis_/smilies/exorcist.gif


You can use your own too, just add them like you would any image -- use the smilie's url with the "insert image" code. :cool:


http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j310/rsdotcom/icons/backtotopic.gif

[g1ng3rsnap9ed]

Oh, okay. Well I don't want to waste that much time on a stupid smilie, so no thanks. :D

[Lotis]

Oh, okay. Well I don't want to waste that much time on a stupid smilie, so no thanks. :D

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j310/rsdotcom/icons_large/th_spock.gif

OK. :D

[The Postmaster General]

the alaskan blob is algae

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090718/us_time/08599191151700


Yeah, but that's still not in the realm of seeing Godzilla, and saying it's a reptile. No one has seen this stuff before, and there's a lot of it and it's coming this way. It's probably benign, so that isn't in the Godzilla realm. Some are thinking, and I'm inclined to say it makes sense, that this is something that thawed out from a glacier. If that is the case, we could have an actual living specimen of something dating some crazy amount more than anything we've had to study up until this time.

[Abbie Normal]

All lies. It is a blob and it is going to kill us all! The Mayans are right!