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Thursday, October 28, 2010

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


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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