Posted on 11/01/2010 3:43:26 PM PDT by decimon
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Co-worker Charlie Schmuck says “The lake is behind our office. Tracy was walking by the lake, saw the object, and asked everyone else to come out and take a look.”
Tracy thought it was “a huge dead snake.”
Charlie thought it “looked like some weird underwater fungus, like the ones that explode when you poke them.”
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The scientists at VIMS were equally intrigued. The e-mail read “The object is about 4 feet in diameter. It has moved about 6 feet down the shoreline in the last 24 hours. It 'jiggles' when the waves in the lake hit it… when we prod it, it seems to be spongy feeling… The texture appears to be that of a rock with algae spots on it—it is brown and yellow, with a pattern of some type.”
A brief flurry of internal e-mails followed. The marine tunicate Eudistoma hepaticum? Unlikely, as the lake contains fresh water. A Halloween prank in which someone moved a marine organism to the lake? Perhaps. The final consensus was that the organism is Pectinatella magnifica—the "magnificient bryozoan."
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(Excerpt) Read more at vims.edu ...
Just cuz ping.
VIMS professor Carl Hershner notes that bryozoans consume algae, so the “alien pod” is “actually a good thing to have around, despite its looks.” ”It's not a sign of bad water quality,” he adds, “and it doesn't hurt fish. It can clog pipes, though, and it will be smelly if it’s removed from the water.”
Anyone who finds a “UFO” (unidentified fishy object) in Chesapeake Bay or surrounding waters and would like help in identification is encouraged to visit www.vims.edu/bayinfo/ufos or to submit a digital photo and description (location, size, shape, color, behavior, etc.) to vimspr@vims.edu.
UFO! Funny! And very cool!
I knew it!:)
His name is “Schmuck”?????
Really? Schitt, thats funny.
bflr
I am an alum of the VIMS when I was at William and Mary a century ago.
And you didn't become a President?
“alien pod”???
Did it have a Quagaar warrier in it?
Best photo of Michele Obama that I have seen in months.
Charlie Schmuck. I wonder why he doesn’t go by “Chuck.”
Schumer might sue for impersonation.
LOL ;-)
No, my intent at the time was to be the next Jacques Cousteau, not the next Richard Nixon. I was just glad my draft number was 272 while I was there ...
LOL!
“magnificient bryozoan”? Isn’t that Rove?
Used to be here at FR. Recently he's been "...like some weird underwater fungus, like the ones that explode when you poke them.”
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