Marine biologist Serena Fonda Umani approaches a blob of dead and living organic matter, called a mucilage, in the Adriatic Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean, in 1991. As temperatures have risen in the Mediterranean in recent decades, mucilages have been forming more often and in more places, says a September 2009 study that also found harmful bacteria in the blobs. Photograph courtesy Nino Caressa By Christine Dell’Amore, National Geographic News, October 8, 2009

Beware of the blob—this time, it’s for real. 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. Until now, the light-brown “mucus” was seen as mostly a nuisance, clogging fishing nets and covering swimmers with a sticky gel—newspapers from the 1800s show beach-goers holding their noses, according to study leader Roberto Danovaro, director of the marine science department at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy. But the new study found that 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. … Fish and other marine animals that have no choice but to swim with mucilages are most vulnerable to their disease-carrying bacteria, which can kill even large fish, the study says. The noxious masses can also trap animals, coating their gills and suffocating them, Danovaro said. And the biggest blobs can sink to the bottom, acting like a huge blanket that smothers life on the seafloor. …

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