via Toxic blob drifting in Gulf mystifies scientists | HeraldTribune.com.
Just off the Florida Panhandle coastline, within site of Perdido Key, an underwater mass of dead sea life that appears to be growing as microscopic algae and bacteria get trapped and die has been found by scientists. Early samples indicate the glob is at least 3 feet thick and spans two-thirds of a mile parallel to the coast. No one knows where it came from or where it will go.Scientists are trying to determine if oil from last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster led to the glob. But tests so far have found no sign of oil. “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. While scientists have drawn no conclusions about the gooey mat’s origin, they are not ruling out a potential connection to the oil spill. Oil gummed and slicked that part of the Gulf for 30 to 40 days during the three-month well gusher, which pumped 186 million to 227 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.
Over the last two days we have had an unusual “Orange Blob” floating on the Gulf surface just offshore in Miramar Beach, Florida. The streak covers at least a mile or two East to West and was sitting just outside of the second sandbar. It smells disgusting and is very buoyant -not mixing with the water. The only obvious sign of marine life in it is bird feathers which have been washing up in larger numbers than usual this weekend. My sample, refrigerated overnight has finally sunk into several layers and retains it’s orange color. We split off a sample for Coast Guard and NOAA. They are uncertain what it is and testing the samples as well. The sample did not fluoresce under UV lighting. We still have tarballs washing up most days and, of course, oil buried under the sand on the beach.
Thanks for the update BlueMountainSurfer! Glad people like you are on the ground down there keeping tabs on the situation. Let us know what the results are, if they find anything.
Took another sample and before refrigeration this time looked under a microscope, it looks to be a single cell red algae. NOAA reports are now calling it this as well. On the same beaches today we had many fish and jellies washing ashore. The jellies are reported to have a similar orange substance inside them.
On a more disheartening note, we UV spotted beaches between Panama City Florida and Ft. Morgan AL. The beach in Pensacola was covered in dispersed oil on the surface and trenching to 24 inches showed layers of the same below the surface. They have done an excellent job of churning it up to be invisible to the naked eye… but it’s still there, now in tiny bite sized morsels.
If anyone else is holding samples from the DWH event, be sure to look at them under high power UV 365NM light. If it contains “weathered and dispersed oil” you will see a bright orange glow. No Corexit and no weathering = no glow.