Alaska mystery blob is algae

McClatchy Newspapers reports on the scientific findings of a mystery blob appearing in Alaska's Chukchi Sea.

The black substance, some thought to be oozing oil from a sunken tanker, turned out to be... algae.

Miles of the thick, dark gunk had been spotted floating between Barrow and Wainwright, prompting North Slope Borough officials and the Coast Guard to investigate last week. A sample was sent to a Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Palmer, where workers looked at it under a microscope and declared it some kind of simple plant — an algae, said Ed Meggert, of the Department of Environmental Conservation in Fairbanks.

Read the full story: Mystery solved: Alaska's mystery blob is identified as algae