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Decomposing Jellyfish Goop Is Clogging Up Norway’s Northern Fjords

This is really gross.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

A mysterious purple goop has invaded some of Norway's northern fjords in the region of Troms, irritating fisherman and generally just grossing people out. No one can say for certain what the slime is, but oceanographers are pretty sure it's from a bloom of cigar comb jellies that have died and are beginning to disintegrate.

A video (in Norwegian) shows fishermen scraping the gunk off ropes. They're calling the goop a "plague," and apparently haven't experienced this phenomenon before.

Globally, however, large jellyfish blooms are on the rise, possibly as a result of climate change. In addition to bedeviling fishermen, they've posed problems for nuclear power plants, clogging pipes that run ocean water to cool the reactors. As a solution to the problem, South Korea has used jellyfish-murdering robots in the past—basically roving sea blenders.

Cigar comb jellies are otherwise benign, phallic-looking Cnidarians, but in this case they're a disgusting pain in the butt. Fishermen compare the texture of the goo to "margarine."

Go ahead and watch this if you want to put yourself off Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.