Subj:     Mystery blobs fall on New Jersey
Date:     9/13/99 9:15:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From:     RexAndRuth@email.msn.com (RexAndRuth)
To:  phikent@aol.com

What Could It Be?
Mysterious Blobs Along N.J. Shore
Have Scientists Scratching Their Heads
9.56 a.m. ET (1356 GMT) September 12, 1999 
By Michael P. Regan

SEA ISLE CITY, NJ - Environmentalists, tourists and local
officials agree: They’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Mike Regan/Fox News

Like nothing you’ve ever seen on the beach

In fact, authorities were so puzzled by the huge blobs of
the white, gelatinous substance that washed up on the Jersey
Shore last week they had to send pieces of it to a lab in
Louisiana. They are still waiting to hear back on what the
material is.

At least they know a little about what it isn’t. The
estimated five to seven tons of material - which was on the
shore in at least four communities - is neither toxic nor
radioactive. And while “the blob” doesn’t appear harmful to
humans, some environmentalists are wondering what it might
do to sea life.

“It may be harmful to other animals,” said Tony Totah, a
marine biologist with New Jersey’s nonprofit Clean Ocean
Action group. Totah is especially concerned sea turtles and
small whales may mistake the material for jellyfish or other
saltwater delectables.

“They may try eating it and it may block their digestive
system,” Totah said. And if smaller parasites start growing
on the chunks, he said, “that makes it look more inviting to
them.”

And humans, too, could not resist giving the rubbery chunks
- some as long as 15 feet - a poke or two with bare feet or
sticks.

It Came From the Sea
Beachgoers were startled Labor Day when the mysterious blobs
- which resembled giant pieces of used chewing gum - rode
ashore along waves churned by the remnants of tropical storm
Dennis. The material landed on the sand in the towns of
Atlantic City, Ocean City, Strathmere and Sea Isle City,
officials said.

  “It was treated like a solid waste and is not going to
  have a residual or environmental impact”

Some people didn’t know what to think.
“I’m surprised the EPA didn’t react with some type of press
release or public service announcement,” said Chris
Onderdonk, a tourist from Pennsylvania who watched the blobs
wash up. “I’ll tell you, some people were afraid it might be
a health hazard. ... I was surprised to see parents letting
their kids play on it even though they knew nothing about
it.”

An emergency response team from New Jersey’s Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) rushed to the beaches Monday
to do field tests. But they determined the blobs nontoxic,
and decided to keep the beaches open.

“It wasn’t radioactive, didn’t have any hazardous aspects to
it,” said Loretta O’Donnell, a spokesperson for the DEP. “It
was treated like a solid waste,” she said, and is “not going
to have a residual or environmental impact.”

Coast Guard Lt. Dan Higman said the field tests are accurate
enough to assess their risks. Nonetheless, the Coast Guard
sent samples down to a lab in Louisiana to find out more.
“The hope is that if we can ID exactly what it is, we may be
able to track it to a source,” Higman said. “It’s just so
large, the clumps of it coming in are huge, so we really
have no idea,” Higman said.

The theories along the beach in Sea Isle City ranged
anywhere from space aliens to some kind of elaborate
packaging used by drug smugglers.

Higman said the lab tests that will give the chemical
breakdown of the blobs should be back this week. Until then,
officials and beachgoers continue to speculate on the origin
of the puzzling chunks.

The theories along the beach in Sea Isle City on Monday
ranged anywhere from space alien lifeforms to some kind of
elaborate packaging used by drug smugglers.

“Some of the best guesses are it might have come from a
vessel offshore, or a container might have fallen
overboard,” Higman said. The only thing remotely similar to
these chunks, Higman said, was “a spill up around that neck
of the woods about three years ago.” He said that “wound up
being a component of hand cream.”

Not that anyone should rub this stuff on their chafed hands
“If they don’t know what it is that’s washing up on the
beach, people shouldn’t handle it,” said Totah, the marine
biologist. “If it’s something that doesn’t look natural, who
could say that next year something happens and people say
it’s the same stuff and it’s not the same stuff.”