A giant, living, fibrous brown mass, approximately 12 to 15 miles long, was recently discovered to be floating in the Chuckchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. Seriously. It sounds like a 50s horror flick, but the mass—nicknamed “The Blob”—was originally thought to be an oil spill and has now been declared by scientists to be a living algae bloom.
“The fact that the locals say they’ve never seen anything like I suggests that it might represent some exotic species which has drifted into the region, perhaps as a result of global change. For the moment, that’s just a guess,” stated Barry Sherr, an oceanography professor at Oregon State University.
Although speculation as to its origins is just that at this point—speculation—it does bring up the issue of algae blooms. Blooms require three things in order to grow: nutrients, light, and particular water temperatures. Often, these nutrients are inadvertently supplied by people fertilizing their lawns. In a process called “eutrophication,” the fertilizer is washed by the rain into water ecosystems and feeds nutrients like nitrogen to algae, allowing algae to thrive and other animal life to choke.
The blooms are often toxic to marine organisms and humans alike. Another algae bloom called a “red tide” is currently occurring off the coast of Maine and has caused a complete shutdown of clam, mussel, and quahog harvesting. Choosing an alternative to the traditional lawn, like organic agriculture or grass substitutes, can help stop this problem and save energy, water, local plant species, and the oceans!
For more information on human-caused algae blooms, visit: http://www.umces.edu/HABs.htm.
For grass lawn alternatives, click here!
