- Some people call it "goo.''
-
- Some people think it looks like clear globs of tapioca
pudding.
-
- But so far, nobody knows for sure what the clear globules
are that have been showing up in Lake Superior over the past few
days.
-
- Swimmers have noticed them floating in the water off
Park Point. A research crew from the Natural Resources Research Institute
collected some there Thursday. Jeff Gunderson, associate director of
Minnesota
Sea Grant, collected samples of the globules Monday off Park Point and
Brighton Beach.
-
- Although some of the globules have been examined under
microscopes, no biologists have yet been able to determine what the goo
is.
-
- Jeff Schuldt of NRRI describes the goo as
"transparent,
gelatinous spheres'' not quite as big as peas.
-
- "We've looked at it under a microscope, and there
doesn't appear to be any kind of animal inside of it,'' Schuldt
said.
-
- "We don't know if it's organic or inorganic yet,''
Gunderson said.
-
- "I don't know what inorganic would form a shape
like that, but I don't want to guess what organic would be making that
much slime, either,'' Schuldt said.
-
- Nobody who has swum in Lake Superior amid the globules,
including Schuldt, has reported any adverse effects from it.
-
- Biologists are reasonably sure the goo isn't fish eggs,
Gunderson said.
-
- "If it were a fish egg, there would be some cells
dividing in there. We're not seeing any definition in there whatsoever,''
he said. "There's such a huge volume of it in so many places. It's
like an algae bloom, but it's not algae. I'm going to pursue it with the
chemistry department at UMD to see if it's a protein.''
-
- The slime coat on a fish is made up of protein, Gunderson
said.
-
- Schuldt and others were researching fish and water
quality
Thursday, Schuldt said, when some young swimmers asked the researchers
what the goo was. That's when Schuldt began collecting it for analysis
at at the research institute.
-
- The St. Louis County Health Department had not heard
about the globules and declined to comment on the reports.
-
- Gunderson has studied Lake Superior organisms for 22
years at Sea Grant and has never seen anything like this, he said.
-
- He found similar globules Thursday while out on UMD's
Blue Heron research vessel. Those samples are believed to have come from
the lake's bottom in 300 feet of water, Gunderson said.
-
- Gunderson plans to check with biologists on lakes Huron,
Michigan and Ontario to see if they have seen anything like this.
-
- "It's a little disturbing (not knowing what it
is),''
Schuldt said. "We're going to have to try to identify it
somehow.''
-
-
- Cook is a News Tribune columnist and outdoors writer.
Call him at (218) 723-5332 or (800) 456-8282.
E-mail him at scook@duluthnews.com
Or write Duluth News-Tribune, 424 W. First St., Duluth, MN 55802.
-
-
http://web.duluthnews.com/content/duluth/2001/08/07/local/du_GOO0807.htm
-
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|