Bizarre, three-foot-wide blobs of jelly have been spotted off the Norwegian coast and they contain tiny squid eggs in a bubble of mucus, a study has found.
Researchers found that each of the blobs may contain as many as hundreds of thousands of the tiny eggs, each of which can develop into an embryonic squid.
Since the mid-eighties, 90 blob sightings have been recorded both around Norway and also in the Mediterranean, but it is only recently that they have been sampled.
The egg sacs belong to the common squid Illex coindetii, the team said, which is found on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in the Mediterranean Sea.
Apr 05, 2021 11:28 AM EDT
A DNA analysis uncovers that each blob could hold hundreds of thousands of squid eggs. Many years ago, divers touring the western coast of Norway came across an object they couldn t describe: A huge, jelly-like blob, over 3 feet (1 meter) wide, was hovering in place partially between the surface and the seafloor.
(Photo : Getty Images)
The Blobs
A dark streak made a cut through the middle of the orb, but the object was otherwise translucent and doesn t possess any feature. It was, simply in place, a perfectly mysterious blob. Since 1985, almost 100 similar blobs seen by divers have been reported close to Norway and the Mediterranean Sea, but the bizarre gelatinous masses have always avoided classification.