Killer Blob Invades Vietnamese Lake
Posted by Sean on May 18th, 2009
Local fisherman around Vietnam’s Lake Rung suspected changing weather patterns were the culprit when fish started dying off in large numbers last year. When they headed out last month to collect fish they caught around two tons of a strange, blob like, creature. The fish caught along side the blobs perished soon afterward. Touching the blobs brought itchiness and sore eyes Thanh Nien News reports:
“We didn’t know if they were animals or plants and began called them the “strange creature,” Xuan said.
She showed a bucket containing some bryozoans, adding that they had died after being caught a day earlier.
Yen, a worker at the cooperative, said the strange creatures stick themselves to the plants, bags, or the lake floor. He also said some were as small as a finger-tip but others weighed almost a kilogram.
That’s right, the fish-killing blobs are bryozoans. Byrozoans are tiny coral like animals that usually form rigid, calcium carbonate structures in salt water. This particular batch are known as Pectinatella magnifica and are a rare, gelatinous freshwater form of the species that can grow up to two meters. According to Vietnamese authorities, these massive blobs are a first in the nation of Vietnam and the government is working to contain the outbreak from spreading to other village lakes.
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