Annual Alaskan Whale Circlejerk Results In!

[Lloyd Danforth]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/environment/story/71842.html

Big blobs of mystery goo floating off Alaska coast

By Don Hunter | The Anchorage Daily News

Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.

Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.

Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright to investigate. The agencies found "globs" of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.

Later, Brower said, the North Slope team in a borough helicopter spotted a long strand of the stuff and followed it for about 15 miles, shooting video from the air.

The next day the floating substance arrived offshore from Barrow, about 90 miles east of Wainwright, and borough officials went out in boats, collected more samples and sent them off for testing too.

Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but 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.

To read the complete article, visit www.adn.com.

[dalebert]

Lloyd, are you suggesting this is whale jizz? Gross!

[cynthia]

Now THIS is a good thread - I can't wait to see where it goes...

[Free libertarian]

A pod of marauding sperm whales in a circle jerk?  I didn't think they had the requisite opposable thumb to ah accomplish the deed? 

[keith in RI]

speaking of sperm whales, this thread reminded me of this story...... 20 bucks a gram this stuff was worth...

http://fishfeet2007.blogspot.com/2007/04/australian-couple-find-floating-gold.html


"........Australian Couple Hits Ambergris Jackpot

All Things Considered, January 25, 2006 · A lucky couple in Australia recently happened upon a lump of ambergris on a beach and may have netted a huge windfall. Known as "floating gold," ambergris is a waxy grayish substance formed in the intestines of sperm whales and is added to perfumes to slow evaporation. A gram of ambergris is worth up to $20........"


these people found like a 30 pound rock of this stuff on a beach..... nice payday

[J’raxis 270145]

speaking of sperm whales, this thread reminded me of this story...... 20 bucks a gram this stuff was worth...

http://fishfeet2007.blogspot.com/2007/04/australian-couple-find-floating-gold.html


"........Australian Couple Hits Ambergris Jackpot

All Things Considered, January 25, 2006 · A lucky couple in Australia recently happened upon a lump of ambergris on a beach and may have netted a huge windfall. Known as "floating gold," ambergris is a waxy grayish substance formed in the intestines of sperm whales and is added to perfumes to slow evaporation. A gram of ambergris is worth up to $20........"


these people found like a 30 pound rock of this stuff on a beach..... nice payday

How much did the government steal? Australia... I'm guessing about half?

[Lloyd Danforth]

I think the stuff stinks.  One would not only have to be able to recognize the stuff, but, be willing to handle it.

[keith in RI]

mystery solved????


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

[KBCraig]

So, it looks like an algal bloom. We can't pour a bunch of chlorine in the ocean to stop it, but that itself brings up a good point: salt water normally makes its own chlorine when subjected to enough sunlight. That's how salt-system swimming pools work. This very cool period of "global warming" corresponds with a very low period of solar output. Gee: less heat from the sun equals less heat on Earth. Who'd a thunk it?

Less solar output also means less NaCl-->Chlorine conversion. In simple terms, less sunlight means the ocean's immune system is compromised, so crazy things like algal blooms go on unchecked.

That's my theory, anyway. People with actual knowledge and education in the physical sciences are welcome to correct me. 

[Pat McCotter]

Isn't it something how the Earth has been operating like this - self-correcting - for millions of years and we humans are - deluded, conceited, vain, audacious, what's the word here - enough to think we can destroy it at our present population level?

If you move every man, woman and child in the world into the "lower 48" of the US, there would be about 4 people per acre. Yes, that is crowded by some folks standards, but it is livable by  human standards.

Chicago has 19 people/acre. If we were to bunch everyone together to Chicago's density we could fit them all into the state of Alaska (we will allow RKBA.) Or, if we split them between the states with land area larger than 10,000 square miles, 39 states would need about 14,000 square miles each - again at the density of Chicago - to accommodate them.

The rest of the world would be empty of humans! All those calling for an end to urban sprawl would be happy. Yes, there are the nagging questions, how much land would be required  between population centers for food production and waste dispersion, how much water, energy, etc. But look at how much of the world is empty of people!

[John Edward Mercier]

Most likely a natural upwelling of nutrients.
Plant photosynthesis is generally limited by nutrients.

[KBCraig]

If you move every man, woman and child in the world into the "lower 48" of the US, there would be about 4 people per acre. Yes, that is crowded by some folks standards, but it is livable by  human standards.

The typical horror story for over-population is India, with its overcrowded slums, with 904 people per square mile. Who could possibly live in such conditions, where squalor is the natural outcome of such population density.

Meanwhile, New Jersey has a population density of 1,134 people per square mile, which is 25% greater than India's density. Far be it from me to suggest NJ is a paradise, but anyone who has traveled there knows it is a mostly rural, agricultural state with lots of open space.

[Lloyd Danforth]

You guys are ruining this topic

[KBCraig]

I'm sorry, Lloyd. Carry on with your whale jizz.