Thursday, May 25, 2006

Invasion of the scary ocean blob creature

A mysterious rubbery "blob" creature that resembles scrambled eggs is smothering the ocean bottom in New England and beyond, and scientists are worried.

"This thing is ugly. It has no socially redeeming virtues," said Ivar Babb, after a recent study of the blob near Long Island.

The blob is an invasive sea squirt that reproduces quickly and forms large mats covering the ocean bottom, sometimes resembling scrambled eggs. Like some sort of scary ocean monster, it can change shape and has no known predators. At the first international conference on the blob, scientist Mary Carman even wondered if it's something newly evolved.

Invasive species smothers George's Bank, threatens valuable fish and scallops. It sounds like science fiction but it's real.

4 comments:

Heidi said...

Maybe this blob stuff is like the Goo in Christopher Moore's book "Fluke".

Mark Powell said...

I read that book, hope I don't find myself in the gooey clutches of the goo!

Anonymous said...

The Blob or this so called alien tunicate worries me. I mean if core samples have been taken and we havn't figured out what makes this species invasive, it has the potential to do some serious damage and already has! Exposure to air will be difficult. We need to eliminte this threat and take back our Ocean floor. Before it's too late... - Nova Scotia, Canada

Anonymous said...

I dont get y we just cant get this stuff off the ocean floor....its not like it can do any damage to us. so just suck it up like with a vaccumm thing