[url]http://www.naplesnews.com/02/03/naples/d599686a.htm[/url]

[:E]

I betcha its one of them there UFO's that crashed or some shit like that dudes.[(:|)]

Or maybe it has something to do with those damn chemtrails...

Satellite images show 'black water' progression, giving researchers some clues

Several images from Orbimage's SeaWiFS satellite should help scientists discover the source of a wide body of black water in the Gulf of Mexico. The first, taken on Jan. 9, shows the water's appearance offshore. Photo courtesy Orbimage;
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Dr. Frank Muller-Karger and Dr. Chuanmin Hu, of the university's remote sensing laboratory, said the pictures can't tell the whole story, but they might give clues about the source of the water.

Hu said the black water first appeared on satellite images in mid-December about 30 to 60 miles north of the Keys. At its peak in early February, it was larger than Lake Okeechobee but began to diffuse into the surrounding Gulf of Mexico waters in recent weeks.

Other scientists with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg and the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota are testing samples of the water to see if the chemicals, dissolved matter and organisms in it might point to a source.  

Fish spotter pilots were the first to discover the black water in January. Though fishermen didn't find dead fish in its wake, they report an abysmal season for those waters and unusual behavior in the few fish they did find.

While the images from the private company Orbimage's SeaWiFS and a NASA satellite show that the water might be coming from the Shark River, not all the pictures are consistent with that possibility, Muller-Karger said.

In some images, the water appears to be coming from the river, which has its outlet about 35 miles south of Marco Island. But Hu said the water doesn't quite behave like river runoff and settles to the bottom as it travels farther from the source.

The second image from Orbimage's SeaWiFS satellite, shot on Feb. 4, shows the growth and movement south of the black water. Photo courtesy Orbimage;
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"Why, only in the center, do (the particles) appear to sink?" Hu asked.

He said another possible source might be from some kind of underwater fountain spewing the black water from the seabed.

"That would explain the isolated black water mass," he said.

Hu is also looking at images from past years to see if the black water came and went before with no one noticing, though he pointed out that fishermen with decades on the water had never seen the phenomenon.

"The samples will tell more of a story than the satellite images," he said.

Researchers from the Mote Lab and others sent boats to collect the water in recent days. They found unusually dark water in pockets along the north side of the 126-mile chain of Keys. Along with a popular tourist spot, the chain is also home to the delicate coral reef ecosystem in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Scientists have speculated that it could be from an unknown algae or bacteria bloom or from fresh water somehow reaching the bay.

Field testing of the water by Mote on Tuesday showed that it had normal salinity and oxygen content.

The normal salinity wouldn't rule out river runoff, said Erich Mueller, director of Mote's Center for Tropical Research in the Keys. That could've returned as the water mixed with the gulf.

"(River runoff) sounds right now like the most logical explanation, but it's certainly not a done deal," Mueller said.