An unidentified substance was found washed up on the Summers Bay beach. Samples were sent to University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and are being tested.
Observation by Asia Beder:
Found at Summers Bay Beach, Unalaska. Consistency is super soft and leave an oily/waxy residue when you squish them. Not sure if it is marine life or something man made. We are going to check the beach today to see if it is still there and collect some samples for our local SeaGrant agent. Shared via "Unusual Marine Life of Alaska" Facebook Group conversation with Erica Lujan
7/24/19 Observation by Andy Dietrick:
Lots of eagles around this morning and quite a smell. Just took a look and all of Front Beach is coated in it. Shared via "Unusual Marine Life of Alaska" Facebook Group conversation with Erica Lujan
8/7/19 Melissa Good, SeaGrant Marine Advisory Agent, writes:
A sample of the orange substance was collected by ADF&G (Alaska Department of Fish and Game) Biologist, Asia Beder, in Unalaska and frozen. Some of the substance has been shipped to Dean Stockwell of the University of Alaska for identification. We are waiting for his response. This event has not reoccurred.
8/8/19 Dean Stockwell, Biologist and Oceanographer at UAF, writes:
The orange substance doesn't appear to be krill. In fact, this has been difficult to ID, no real structure. I am hoping to have some DNA samples run to see what it could be.
8/30/19 Dean Stockwell writes:
I’ve looked at the sample of Dutch Harbor “orange substance”. I saw no identifiable structure in the sample. Several zooplankton people also looked at the material and could not identify organisms. I asked Kyle Dilliplaine of the Genomics Core Lab (Institute of Arctic Biology, UAF) if he would run a DNA profile. He found that the two top markers were for two species of copepods (Pseudocalanus and Neocalanus). These are two genera of marine copepods that are very common in your local waters and common food items for fish, birds and marine mammals. The waxy, oily texture is very common when these organisms are found in the guts of marine mammals. So it is suggestive that the material came from marine mammal stomachs. That’s about as close as I can get. Hope this is of some help.
