Orange Goo Invades Alaskan Village

s31523 writes "When the residents of the Alaskan village of Kivalina woke up last week, the unexpected sight of an orange goo covering the surface of the water was quite alarming. Suspecting a oil spill or some other man-made disaster, the residents worried about the toxicity of the substance. After NOAA investigated, it was found the that goo is an unknown type of microscopic eggs. According to NOAA scientist Keep Rice, 'We now think these are some sort of small crustacean egg or embryo, with a lipid oil droplet in the middle causing the orange color.' More work is needed to identify what the eggs are and what caused them to show up."

Comments

Ocean Temperatures

[catchblue22]

Given the continuing rise in ocean temperatures, and given the fact that northern latitudes have experienced a marked warming in recent years, it seems to me a reasonable speculation that this bloom is at least in part temperature related.