Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger

As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says (sea "mucus" blob pictures).

And the blobs may be more than just unpleasant.

Up to 124 miles (200 kilometers) long, the mucilages appear naturally, usually near Mediterranean coasts in summer. The season's warm weather makes seawater more stable, which facilitates the bonding of the organic matter that makes up the blobs (Mediterranean map).

Now, due to warmer temperatures, the mucilages are forming in winter too—and lasting for months.

...Mediterranean mucilages harbor bacteria and viruses, including potentially deadly E. coli, Danovaro said. Those pathogens threaten human swimmers as well as fish and other sea creatures, according to the report, published September 16 in the journal PloS One.

* The mucilage makes seawater areas unsuitable for bathing because of the bad smell & the adherence the skin of bathers.

* The life span may be up to 2-3 months on the water surface or column.

* Marine mucilage once it has settled on the sea bottom, coats the sediments, & may extend for kms producing hypoxic / anoxic conditions.

* This may then cause suffocation of benthic (bottom-associated) organisms.

* The mucilage can also act as major repository for prokaryotes (i.e.bacteraia & protozoa) & viruses with the potential health risks of this.

* Fingerprinting techniques also show that the mucilage has increased bacterial diversity compared with the surrounding seawater.

* Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has identified Vibrio harveyiin from some marine mucilage deposits, but not in the surrounding seawater.

* It is possible that the complex organic matrix of marine mucilage enables favourable microniches to develop which then support pathogen colonization & survival.

Originally posted by Drunkenshrew
Thanks, interesting find, never heard of this marine mucilage before.