A researcher stumbles upon a strange black substance on the rudder of a ship, which turns out to be a new form of life
An eerie black sludge hidden on a ship’s rudder turns out to be a completely unknown form of life—now named ShipGoo001.
When Captain Rual Lee docked his research vessel Blue Heron in Cleveland, Ohio, for to have some maintenance done last summer, he expected to fix a simple mechanical issue.
Instead, he may have stumbled onto something far more extraordinary—something never before documented on Earth.
A strange black substance where it shouldn’t be
The Blue Heron plays a critical role in monitoring harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, a body of water that straddles the U.S.-Canada border and is a hotspot for environmental research.
While docked at the Great Lakes Shipyard for repairs to its propeller shaft bearings, Lee noticed a problem that had nothing to do with the mechanics.
As workers exposed the ship’s rudder post—a part usually hidden underwater—they uncovered a tar-like black substance oozing from the surface.
It looked out of place. It wasn’t grease, it wasn’t oil, and it wasn’t something Lee had ever seen before.
Curiosity leads to a scientific mystery
Lee, a seasoned captain but also no stranger to science, decided to run a few informal tests.
He dipped the black material in water to see if it reflected light. Nothing. Then, he hit it with a blowtorch—still nothing.
Puzzled, he collected a sample and brought it to the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), where a team of microbial ecologists took over.
“Hey, we work for a science lab,” Lee told reporters at local media outlet Cleveland.com. “We have people who do things.”
From mystery goo to microbial breakthrough
Doug Ricketts, a marine technician with the Minnesota Great Lakes Observatory, delivered the sample to microbiologist Dr. Cody Sheik, an associate professor at UMD.
At first glance, Sheik assumed it was just some old marine grease buildup.
But there was one problem: the rudder post had only ever been lubricated with lake water.
That’s when the sample piqued his scientific curiosity.
Sheik noted the sludge bore a resemblance to samples he’d seen from petroleum reservoirs—but chemical testing quickly ruled out any connection to fossil fuels.
ShipGoo001: A lifeform no one has seen before
Digging deeper, Sheik used chemical treatments to break open the cells in the goo and analyze their DNA.
He discovered 20 distinct DNA sequences—most of them matched known microorganisms from various parts of the world.
But one did not.
One genome stood out: a completely unknown DNA sequence, unlike anything ever documented in scientific databases.
That sequence has now been classified as a new form of unicellular life, nicknamed ShipGoo001.
Its precise biology and ecological role remain a mystery, but it doesn’t appear to pose a threat to the environment or the ship.
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