These earthly godfathers of Heaven's lights, that give a name to every fixed star, have no more profit of their shining nights than those that walk and know not what they are.

— William Shakespeare

Arctic Mystery: Identifying the Great Blob of Alaska

By kuky at Tue, 07/28/2009 - 2:23pm

A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called "the blob." It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska's northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy. When it touched floating ice, it looked almost black.
Read full article here:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2c8599%2c1911517%2c00.html

and some more here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_sc826