MicrobeWorld

This is a strange story here. Apparently, miles and miles of a biological substance has been spotted in the Chukchi Sea, the swath of ocean between Siberia and Alaska. Environmental experts at first thought it may be an oil spill, but on closer examination they believe it's alive.

From the Anchorage Daily News -

Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not.

"It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

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

Hasenauer said the Coast Guard's samples are being analyzed in Anchorage. Results may be back sometime next week, he said.

"We brought back one sample of what they believe to be an algae," he said, and a big algae bloom is one possibility.

But, he said, "there's all types of natural phenomena that it could be."

(Found at BoingBoing.net)