A wave of floating blobs has appeared throughout US waterways, leaving some swimmers and boaters fearful that these could be giant marine parasites.
The gelatinous objects have been called ‘cursed gummy bears,’ ‘mutant brains,’ and even ‘sci-fi nightmares,’ as more and more people come across them in freshwater ponds, lakes, and rivers this summer.
Despite growing to the size of a human brain, wildlife officials have said there’s absolutely no cause for alarm.
According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), they’re a colony of tiny creatures that form the magnificent bryozoan.
Officially known as Pectinatella magnifica, the bryozoan is composed of thousands of animals called zooids that stick together as one big, squishy blob.
They’ve been spotted in places like the Pacific Northwest, including the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Washington, but they’re common in many other areas, including the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and the Great Lakes region.
USFWS shared a close-up picture of a large bryozoan discovered in Lake Huron near Michigan on August 17, while ensuring that there’s no cause for panic if you spot one of these blobs floating near you.
Moreover, the colony creatures don’t carry a virus like other wildlife seen this year. Officials said they actually help keep America’s waterways clean and healthy.
Wildlife officials have revealed that the strange blobs seen in US waterways is the harmless magnificent bryozoan
These creatures are giant colonies of tiny zooids which have cleaned the water for 480 million years
‘These ancient creatures breathe life into freshwater, capturing plankton and cleaning the water as they drift in slow-moving rivers and lakes,’ USFWS officials wrote in a Facebook post.
Each zooid is smaller than a grain of rice. Thousands of these creatures build a soft, fragile structure using calcium carbonate, kind of like a delicate skeleton, that gives it a transparent look which feels like a squishy sponge or gummy candy.
You’re most likely to see these blobs in the late summer or early fall, when the colonies grow large and noticeable in ponds or lakes.
In the fall, they create tiny seed-like structures called statoblasts that sink to the bottom of these waterways to survive the winter. In spring, the statoblasts wake up and start new colonies.
Wildlife officials noted that these microscopic survival pods ‘can withstand freezing, drying, and even time itself’ because of their tough outer coating, which keeps them safe and lets them stay dormant until conditions improve.
Despite their odd appearance, bryozoans are not considered dangerous to humans and don’t carry viruses or harbor disease-carrying pests like other animals, raising concerns this year.
As for the magnificent bryozoan, they’ve been around for 480 million years, making them an ancient part of nature’s cleanup crew.
Bryozoan colonies can grow pretty large, sometimes over a foot wide. They start small but expand as more zooids join the group, forming the big, blob-like structures swimmers have seen this summer.
The magnificent bryozoan is commonly seen throughout the US in late summer and early fall, before they break apart into small pods called statoblasts
The statoblasts can survive the harsh climate of winter and wait to create new colony blobs in the spring
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Pectinatella magnifica is the most common bryozoan in the US, but wildlife experts have noted that there are thousands of bryozoan species living in freshwater environments throughout the world.
Although the blobs aren’t native to some areas of the US, like the Pacific Northwest, they’ve been brought there in a number of ways, including inside the stomachs of birds such as ducks or geese, or by getting carried along with fish or water plants that people move to new lakes or ponds.
Over the years, environmental officials across the US, from Ohio to Missouri, have added on social media that if you spot a bryozoan, leave it alone and let the colony do its job.
For those out on the water and find one that’s attached itself to a boat, experts urge boaters to be extremely careful with the blobs.
‘If you spot a bryozoan on your boat or near your dock, don’t remove it unless necessary. If you do remove one, carefully scrape it off so you don’t end up harming the invertebrates,’ KY3 reported after speaking with the Missouri Department of Conservation.