Big blob of gunk found in the Gulf, Herald Tribune, February 2, 2011:
From a distance the toxic goo looks like oil, but up close it smells like rotten eggs and wiggles like jelly. Scientists have no idea what it is or how it wound up in the northern Gulf of Mexico... [j]ust off the Florida Panhandle coastline, within site of Perdido Key...
[S]cientists have discovered an underwater mass of dead sea life that appears to be growing as microscopic algae and bacteria get trapped and die.
Early samples indicate the glob is at least three feet thick and spans two-thirds of a mile parallel to the coast. ...
Tests also showed that tiny organisms had been getting stuck to the blob and dying as a result.
David Hollander, a chemical oceanographer with the University of South Florida:
- The substance is "extraordinarily sticky" and toxic.
- "It seems to be a combination of algae and bacteria."
George Crozier, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Louisiana:
- The material is foreign to the northern Gulf coast environment.
- Speculates that a bloom of algae may have feasted on something - possibly oil - ran out of food and then died. The decaying algae might have then sucked all the oxygen out of the water and killed whatever was in the way.
Phillip West, coastal resources manager for the city of Orange Beach, Alabama:
- In his nine years with Orange Beach, West said he has never heard of a substance matching Hollander's description.
- Occasional mats of decayed marsh muck turn up, but those are far different.
- West also is not ruling out a potential link to the oil.