(SitNews) Juneau, Alaska - Scientists at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Auke Bay Laboratories have determined the mysterious orange substance that washed ashore last week near the village of Kivalina is microscopic eggs.

 “We now think these are some sort of small crustacean egg or embryo, with a lipid oil droplet in the middle causing the orange color,” said Jeep Rice, a lead NOAA scientist at the Juneau lab. “So this is natural. It is not chemical pollution; it is not a man-made substance.”

Lab determines mysterious orange goo is mass of microscopic eggs

Rice and a team of NOAA biologists and chemists received a sample of the orange matter early Saturday. Their first task was to determine if it was “animal, vegetable, or mineral,” said Rice.

 That basic question was easily answered once scientists viewed the substance under a high-powered microscope.

 “It was easy to see cellular structure surrounding the lipid droplet, and to identify this as ‘animal’,” said Rice. “We have determined these are small invertebrate eggs, although we cannot tell which species.”  

 Although the eggs are natural, Rice could not rule out the possibility that the microscopic eggs were toxic. Samples have been sent to a NOAA lab on the east coast for further testing.

Kivalina is a remote Inupiat Eskimo village on Alaska’s northwest coast, about halfway between Kotzebue and Point Hope. Residents became concerned last week when a never-before-seen orange goo began washing ashore.

Samples of the substance were routed to the NOAA lab by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage.

Related:

Orange goo baffles remote Alaska village
Seattle Times

Source of News & Photograph: 

NOAA
http://www.noaa.gov

SitNews ©2011
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources.