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Thousands of mysterious objects land on shore
The Hampton Union ^ | today | STEVE JUSSEAUME

Posted on 06/21/2002 9:59:40 AM PDT by Rodney King

Thousands of mysterious objects land on shore

BY STEVE JUSSEAUME sjusseaume@seacoastonline.com

HAMPTON - Maritime tumbleweed? Whelk egg cases? Plastic fishing line? Extraterrestrial seed pods? Natural cleansers?

Everyone has a theory over the tens of thousands of round Brillo pad-like balls washed up with the incoming tide last weekend along the coast off Hampton. What they exactly are has caused a debate among beach-goers, marine scientists and casual viewers alike this week.

The soft, spongy balls, the size of golf or tennis balls, appeared with the incoming tide along a 300-yard stretch of sandy beach beginning at Northside Beach, just north of Plaice Cove, Friday or Saturday.

"There are just thousands and thousands as far as you can walk," one Hampton resident reported early Sunday morning, adding that she has never seen anything like it.

"I don't know if they're animal or mineral or what," the woman said after walking her dog along the sand.

Marine Program scientists at the University of New Hampshire were contacted, but said they would have a hard time identifying the material without seeing it. One local biologist was perplexed after viewing the greenish balls, most of which are perfectly round and have an ocean smell, though not a strong sea-weedy odor.

"They look man-made to me," said Ellen Goethel, a marine biologist who serves on the Hampton Conservation Commission, when she first looked at the balls, hundreds of which remained at the high water mark at the beach into Wednesday.

The stuff, whether manmade, probably wasn't balled up at first. It was washed up into balls, most likely because of wave action close to the shore that carried the material along the bottom of the ocean floor off the beach, Goethel said.

"It could be sheets of plastic threads, like carpet threads, that were broken up, carried by the waves and rolled up into balls as it came in ..."

Though Goethel couldn't find anything in any marine biology books that corresponds to the balls, after visiting with some local fisherman, she decided the balls could be some kind of sea grass.

"Under magnification, they seem to have some sort of molecular structure," she said.

One pressing problem, Goethel cautioned, is that if the stuff IS plastic, some fish or marine animals could ingest it thinking it was food.

"Baleen whales, for instance, filter what they eat. This stuff could get into their stomachs. They can't pass it, so it remains there, the mammals feel full and die of starvation," Goethel said.

"Seals won't eat it, they use their sense of smell and it doesn't smell fishy. But some fish are dumb and will eat anything.

"My first instinct was to go down there and get it all off the beach," Goethel added.

One investigator had another idea, after looking at strands through a magnifying glass. "My guess is its some type of (bundled up) phytoplankton," offered Kevin Twombly, a marine digital production engineer with the Andover, Mass., firm Maptech.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Pennock, director of the marine program at the University of New Hampshire, asked for a sample of the balls, and said he would try to ascertain what the material is, manmade or natural.

"It could be some type of sea grass, but we'd have to take a close look at it," Pennock said, siding, initially, with Goethel's opinion.

While the little green balls may remain a mystery, at least for the time being, one fisherman working at the Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative this week had his own idea to their identity. And a novel solution to their disposal.

Off-loading his catch, the guy looked at one, smelled it.

"This thing looks like a Brillo pad. Thousands, eh?" he said. "Yea, natural Brillo. Pack 'em up. Ten for a buck."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: New Hampshire
KEYWORDS: beachenvironment
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To: mhking
Looks like some big ass fur balls coughed up by a catfish!
21 posted on 06/21/2002 10:38:16 AM PDT by shawnlaw
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To: MistrX
"Under magnification, they seem to have some sort of molecular structure,"

Furthermore, anything larger than an element has molecular structure whether or not it is under magnification. Heisenberg wasn't THAT uncertain. He limited himself to atoms.

Of course a philosopher would raise a variation on the cliche' tree/forest/makes a sound question "if something is larger than an atom, and nobody views it under magnification, does it have a molecular structure?"

22 posted on 06/21/2002 10:38:24 AM PDT by TrappedInLiberalHell
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To: mhking
They are alien pods... no doubt about it!.

I believe they came from the planet Twylo.

Excuse me, I gotta' call Art Bell. Wooooeeeeoooo!

23 posted on 06/21/2002 10:40:18 AM PDT by johnny7
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To: Rodney King
here's a novel idea: gather up a basket of them and do some research on the bloody things. I'm guessing that this isn't really catching the eyes of marine biologists everywhere as the article wants to make it seem.
24 posted on 06/21/2002 10:49:38 AM PDT by jz638
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To: pepsionice
We need to monitor earthquakes in the area and see if Godzilla emerges. This could be serious.

MAN IN SUIT! MAN IN SUIT! MAN IN SUIT! MAN IN SUIT!

25 posted on 06/21/2002 10:52:34 AM PDT by mhking
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To: MistrX
Beat me, and everyone else, to it.

'It's look like some sort of...thing...'

Thank you doctor!

26 posted on 06/21/2002 10:53:45 AM PDT by Jn316
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To: johnny7
Excuse me, I gotta' call Art Bell.
"From the High Desert and the great American Southwest, I bid you all good evening or morning.....

27 posted on 06/21/2002 10:54:41 AM PDT by mhking
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To: johnny7
These are clearly Trybles.
28 posted on 06/21/2002 11:05:14 AM PDT by bribriagain
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To: Rodney King
I suspect an Al Queda plot.
29 posted on 06/21/2002 11:08:48 AM PDT by Stingray51
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To: TrappedInLiberalHell
Elizabeth appears distraut and visits her friend and boss, Mathew, a public health inspector.
Elizabeth: geoffrey is not... geofrey.
Mathew: Maybe he had a social disease, maybe he had become gay, maybe he became a REPUBLICAN.
Great movie, best remake, one of my favs.
30 posted on 06/21/2002 11:34:11 AM PDT by ffusco
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To: shawnlaw

This guy!

31 posted on 06/21/2002 11:35:24 AM PDT by Doomonyou
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To: Rodney King
MJ tossed overboard, rolled into balls by wave action. Arrest all who possess them!! (the drug warriors would say)
32 posted on 06/21/2002 11:42:30 AM PDT by coloradan
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To: Stingray51
I suspect an Al Queda plot.

Not necessary, your government will suspect one for you.

33 posted on 06/21/2002 12:01:09 PM PDT by Grut
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To: MistrX
"Everything larger than an element has a molecular structure"

WRONG?
A politician's backbone has no structure whatsoever.
34 posted on 06/21/2002 5:27:48 PM PDT by APBaer
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To: Rodney King
bump
35 posted on 06/21/2002 6:21:20 PM PDT by trussell
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To: Rodney King
I've seen these on the beach in Florida and they were green, sort of a pale, pastel green, though they were more roundish than round.
36 posted on 06/21/2002 6:25:11 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: mhking
If this is what they look like, I didn't see these in Florida. I bet these are some sort of Japanese cleaning or scrubbing pad lost at sea when a ship capsized or lost some shipping containers and have become a substrate for algal growth. After all, the same thing happened with running shoes.
37 posted on 06/21/2002 6:36:32 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: lexcorp
This is terrible, worse than the killer hydrogen-dioxide!!! Run for the hills!!!
38 posted on 06/22/2002 8:50:54 AM PDT by Kermit
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To: Rodney King
Either one of two things...Rosie ODonnalls eggs she hatched or I remember reading a thread on here about communist Cuba/bin loon laden wackos, sending bio chem from their shore to ours.

I think folks need to not touch the crap until Rosie fesses up to her hatchings.<P.

39 posted on 06/22/2002 8:53:50 AM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
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To: Rodney King

Nadler took a huge, nasty, vile dump...


40 posted on 06/22/2002 8:59:29 AM PDT by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
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