The Strange Case of the Oakville Blobs

While traversing the interwebs and studiously trying to avoid the political forums on ATS I came across this quite bizarre tale, one I have never heard of before.



wafflesatnoon.com...

The townspeople of Oakville, Washington, were in for a surprise on August 7, 1994. Instead of their usual downpour of rain, the inhabitants of the small town witnessed countless gelatinous blobs falling from the sky. Once the globs fell, almost everyone in Oakville started to develop severe, flu-like symptoms that lasted anywhere from 7 weeks to 3 months. Finally, after exposure to the goo caused his mother to fall ill, one resident sent a sample of the blobs for testing. What the technicians discovered was shocking – the globs contained human white blood cells. The substance was then brought to the State Department of Health of Washington for further analysis. With another startling reveal, they discovered that the gelatinous blobs had two types of bacteria, one of which is found in the human digestive system. However, no one could successfully identify the blob, and how they were connected to the mysterious sickness that plagued the town.

According to the website cited above, this appears to be an embellished tale with a number of possibly misrepresented events. Whatever the case, it seems that the Oakville Blobs was a real event, with a number of hypotheses put forth. These include;

MILITARY EXPERIMENT

Some local residents believe the blobs were related to increased military activity and “testing” done in the area in August 1994, to the point of expressing belief that they were experiments of biological warfare.

JELLYFISH THEORY

Local residents learned that the Air Force had been exploding live bombs in the ocean around 20 miles from the town. It is suggested that jellyfish remains may have been ejected into the air and remained suspended in the clouds until they fell with rain.

AIRLINE THEORY

Modern forums regarding the incident have included the suggestion that the cause of the blobs may have been waste leaked from an airline. While this would tie into the finding of human white blood cells, it is unlikely because airline waste is commonly known as blue ice due to its color from the disinfectant in which it resides. The blobs were not reported to have any specific color.

OAKVILLE COLLUSION THEORY

It has been suggested by some skeptics that the residents of Oakville enhanced and embellished the original story for notoriety. The original news report in fact stated that local residents were discussing an annual jellyfish festival, and mentioned a drink called “The Jellyfish” at a local tavern.

The story grew in notoriety when it was picked up by a TV show, Unsolved Mysteries.

They reported;

factslegend.org...

1. The blobs rained over an area of 20 square miles.
2. The blobs rained for 6 days over a period of 3 weeks.
3. People coming in contact with the blobs suffered from extreme vertigo, increasing nausea, blurred vision of breathing problems.
4. Beverley Roberts – a resident of Oakville reported that the flu-like symptoms continued for a period of 2-3 months.
5. Cats and dogs that came in contact with the blobs also fell sick and many of them died.
6. Mike McDowell from Washington State Department of Health reported two types of bacteria in the blobs and that one of the variants was the bacteria found in digestive system of humans.
7. Tim Davis, a microbiologist believed that the blobs were alive.
8. None of the blob samples exist today.

This report has no doubt muddied the waters of what may have really happened as it seems to be stretching the story somewhat.

There appears to be little evidence other than eyewitness accounts, but there seems to be no doubt that this event really took place. The possibility of the mysterious 'star jelly' pops to mind, as does the idea of an elborate hoax. It's a very interesting story, one that has piqued my own curiosity, but I doubt that curiosity shall ever be sated.

Wow, thankfully I had already finished eating when I started reading this...
S/F for something I'd never heard of before. Creepy

In The Book of British Amphibians and Reptiles (page 138), author M Smith states that star jelly is most likely formed from the glands in the oviducts of frogs and toads. Birds and mammals will eat the animals but not the oviducts which, when they come into contact with moisture, swell and distort leaving a vast pile of jelly like substance sometimes also referred to as otter jelly.

Would also explain the presence of gut bacteria



Further info supporting amphibian origins:

“This past week we’ve been finding piles of this translucent jelly dotted around the reserve. Always on grass banks away from the water’s edge,”

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Following yesterday’s appeal for information about a strange jelly like substance that has appeared at its Ham Wall nature reserve in Somerset the RSPB has received a number of theories about its origin. Tony Whitehead, spokesperson for the RSPB in the south west said; “We’ve been delighted by the number of people that have contacted us about the mystery slime. Many pointed out the sighting of a strange meteor like object over the reserve last week [Note 1] captured on film by a local wildlife photographer. However, the majority of people suggested more earthly origins. Some identified it as a slime mould, but by far the commonest was that its appearance was related to amphibian activity.” The RSPB was contacted by Peter Green a Devonshire vet who works with wildlife, who gave a particularly logical and simple explanation following his own researches. Tony Whitehead explains: “At this time of year amphibians are spawning. The spawn is held in a substance known as glycoprotein which is stored in the female’s body. “If the animal is attacked by a predator – herons for instance are fond of the occasional frog – it will quite naturally drop its spawn and the associated glycoprotein. This is designed to swell on contact with water, which gives the gelatinous mass we are all familiar with in frog spawn. However, if it’s unfertilized, it is just the empty glycoprotein that is dropped – which on contact with moist ground will swell and give a clear slime like substance.”

www.rspb.org.uk...

Or it might be lumps of pre-cellular matter formed in gas clouds, travelling in the interstellar spaces and seeding planets and asteroids with life and water as the crash on them because of gravity.

Some kind of space goat farts if you want.

airliner toilet dumps with chemicals in it to keep liquids from sloshing, during flight. once ejected the jellylike mass of urine fecees and other liquids appears to be disgusting jellyfish...my theory

originally posted by: CaDreamer
airliner toilet dumps with chemicals in it to keep liquids from sloshing, during flight. once ejected the jellylike mass of urine fecees and other liquids appears to be disgusting jellyfish...my theory

They are supposed to be colored blue. Also any analysis of this would have immediately discovered feces and piss...

The fact that it's mostly water and proteins hints to some kind of plant mucilage or amphibian glycoprotein.

originally posted by: cuckooold
While traversing the interwebs and studiously trying to avoid the political forums on ATS I came across this quite bizarre tale, one I have never heard of before.

wafflesatnoon.com...

The townspeople of Oakville, Washington, were in for a surprise on August 7, 1994. Instead of their usual downpour of rain, the inhabitants of the small town witnessed countless gelatinous blobs falling from the sky. Once the globs fell, almost everyone in Oakville started to develop severe, flu-like symptoms that lasted anywhere from 7 weeks to 3 months. Finally, after exposure to the goo caused his mother to fall ill, one resident sent a sample of the blobs for testing. What the technicians discovered was shocking – the globs contained human white blood cells. The substance was then brought to the State Department of Health of Washington for further analysis. With another startling reveal, they discovered that the gelatinous blobs had two types of bacteria, one of which is found in the human digestive system. However, no one could successfully identify the blob, and how they were connected to the mysterious sickness that plagued the town.

According to the website cited above, this appears to be an embellished tale with a number of possibly misrepresented events. Whatever the case, it seems that the Oakville Blobs was a real event, with a number of hypotheses put forth. These include;

MILITARY EXPERIMENT

Some local residents believe the blobs were related to increased military activity and “testing” done in the area in August 1994, to the point of expressing belief that they were experiments of biological warfare.

JELLYFISH THEORY

Local residents learned that the Air Force had been exploding live bombs in the ocean around 20 miles from the town. It is suggested that jellyfish remains may have been ejected into the air and remained suspended in the clouds until they fell with rain.

AIRLINE THEORY

Modern forums regarding the incident have included the suggestion that the cause of the blobs may have been waste leaked from an airline. While this would tie into the finding of human white blood cells, it is unlikely because airline waste is commonly known as blue ice due to its color from the disinfectant in which it resides. The blobs were not reported to have any specific color.

OAKVILLE COLLUSION THEORY

It has been suggested by some skeptics that the residents of Oakville enhanced and embellished the original story for notoriety. The original news report in fact stated that local residents were discussing an annual jellyfish festival, and mentioned a drink called “The Jellyfish” at a local tavern.

The story grew in notoriety when it was picked up by a TV show, Unsolved Mysteries.

They reported;

factslegend.org...

1. The blobs rained over an area of 20 square miles.
2. The blobs rained for 6 days over a period of 3 weeks.
3. People coming in contact with the blobs suffered from extreme vertigo, increasing nausea, blurred vision of breathing problems.
4. Beverley Roberts – a resident of Oakville reported that the flu-like symptoms continued for a period of 2-3 months.
5. Cats and dogs that came in contact with the blobs also fell sick and many of them died.
6. Mike McDowell from Washington State Department of Health reported two types of bacteria in the blobs and that one of the variants was the bacteria found in digestive system of humans.
7. Tim Davis, a microbiologist believed that the blobs were alive.
8. None of the blob samples exist today.

This report has no doubt muddied the waters of what may have really happened as it seems to be stretching the story somewhat.

There appears to be little evidence other than eyewitness accounts, but there seems to be no doubt that this event really took place. The possibility of the mysterious 'star jelly' pops to mind, as does the idea of an elborate hoax. It's a very interesting story, one that has piqued my own curiosity, but I doubt that curiosity shall ever be sated.

If you google "gelatinous rain", you'll find numerous instances of gooey-ness, including threads posted here. This article is pretty recent, here. Interestingly, when I click the link at the end for the original article, I get a 404 error. The key point, however, is the mention of the substance being "biological" in nature.

www.mcclatchydc.com...

originally posted by: CaDreamer
airliner toilet dumps with chemicals in it to keep liquids from sloshing, during flight. once ejected the jellylike mass of urine fecees and other liquids appears to be disgusting jellyfish...my theory

Waste from airliners is referred to as "blue ice", from the bluing in the chem toilets. It's definitely not clear, and there would be far more than just two strains of human bacteria if it were that...not to mention uric acid and other waste byproducts.

originally posted by: tigertatzen

www.mcclatchydc.com...

Oh yeah that's sea snot. The marine version of the mucilage "blobs".

en.wikipedia.org...

All these blobs are the same things; mucilage (google it) it's basically mucus. Yes it's biological in origin.

Mucus is what we living organism produce to protect ourselves from environmental stress. Sea pollution thus increase mucus production from phytoplancton and other sea organisms.

a reply to: cuckooold

Jellyfish theory - aka bombing sea - is IMHO unrealistic unless A-bomb was used. What else could lift jellies to 4 - 10 Km altitude? Also affected area is relatively small and time span absolutely large. It would be possible only if weather pattern unchanged during this time span same as source of the substance.
I can imagine raining frogs as isolated event, but not as reoccurring at same place for almost one week.

This, from the reports of illness, might (might) be a "test" on the populace from our sovereign leaders... or space goo/jelly...

and on that topic, I remember a dozen or so pulsing, hexagonal crusty off-white blobs of ping-pong to basketball size slowly climbing walls and pillars one dreary morning in my Illinois neighborhood I grew up in.

Coincidentally they appeared on my block the day after a large meteor shower and students from the U of Chicago showed up and took samples that weird morning, only to have the things shrivel to a brown, ashy smear once the sun broke through... I have since seen similar blobs identified as slime molds, and such, but never an exact match.

If they were "blob" esque thingies from space as the students joked, then I wonder how they survived deep space if sunlight wasted them like so many shroomy vampires, but they sure were weird!

If space based, they were likely conveyed as spores... but since no news broke about finding unknown life from the stars, I can only guess a more Earthly origin... unless the men in black silence stories of fungi, too!

I'm gonna go with some sort of fish or amphibian eggs picked up by a weather system. Idk it all sounds very odd. But I live on the coast and had a quite large mullet dropped on my windshield quite far from the beach. It is unlikely but possible

I generally prefer to remain anonymous, but in this case the truth supersedes fear. I grew up in Elma, which is about 20 miles northwest ish from Oakville. My dad grew up in Oakville, his dad was the mayor and owner of the general store - which is still there, although not a store last time I passed through. This story caught my attention when I was still in high school (Elma) and it is legitimate.

What I can tell you is that no one in or around Oakville was seeking attention from this weird event. I can tell you that while growing up in Elms ( 13 - 18 yrs old) I and others witnessed UFOs. Lights, or orbs in the sky moving like giant fire flies. I've not spoken of the several sightings I've personally had while riding dirt bikes, camping out in the hills around this area. We were kids, half the time we were stoned, but thinking back...none of the sightings I remember happened while under an influence. Wow....typing this is bringing back some memories....

There was some weird sh!t going on in the Elma area in the 90's. This thing in Oakville was not publicized, merely reported. It was frankly just flipping weird. I never heard about it until later. Not even sure when it happened. I should not dig into those memories, feels ....(uncomfortable) freaky. It was real though, and no one ever knew what the F it was.