A Sea Change

© Nick Allen

I was up to my knees in stinking brown sludge the consistency of thick mucus, wondering where the hell it has come from and what it was, while trying to keep my balance and gather samples at the same time. I'd had reports the previous day that there were mini islands of the stuff in the Thames Estuary, but this was ridiculous. As far as I could see the sludge extended both out to sea and up the river stopping all shipping, bar the largest vessels, which just about managed to push their way through it.

It took all afternoon at a microscope and a good many phone calls and emails to confirm that it was not algae as most people thought, but a new type of plankton. We discovered that like many forms of plankton it multiplied exponentially, meaning that unchecked, it would engulf the oceans and waterways of the world within days.

But I knew that either lack of food, or predation, would always prevent this. So the question was, what had gone wrong in the Thames Estuary, why was this different? And more to the point, what were we to do about it?

I had a team of nine scientists and biologists working with me and it was Russell from Cytology who made the first breakthrough.

“It's something we've never seen before,” he said rather unhelpfully.

I bit my lip. “And?”

“No, what I mean is, it has mutated, but seems to have incorporated petro-carbon molecules into its cell structure. That's why it gives off this unholy stench”.

“So all the pollutants we are spilling into the sea, it's eating?” I asked.

“Too early to say, but it does seem to be able to utilize a vast array of chemicals, synthesising them into energy molecules”.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that there is not much it can't eat. This little bugger can't run out of food”.

My phone rang but I ignored it – Peters saw I was busy and picked up for me.

“So do we know what eats it ?” I asked.

“There's an issue with that, which explains the estuary problem. It seems unpalatable to everything because of the petro-chemical content. Nothing is going to mop it up for us.”

Peters was standing at my shoulder.

“That call, they say there is a mass of the stuff the size of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel”.

“Stop all shipping then,” I said. “We must quarantine that part of the sea. If this spreads, potentially every drop of water on Earth could turn into this stuff”.

And it was as Peters was making the phone call to the Ministry, that we got the first reports from Australia and Canada…