Bloop

I like weird stuff. That's why I live in Belgium! Sorry, that was uncalled for and I apologise unreservedly for a feeble attempt at humour. Where was I? Belgium...NO!...weird. I enjoy reading those quirky stories that occasionally show up in newspapers and on the news in an 'and finally' segment. Ghosts, UFO's, strange shaped vegetables, I love them! Which is why I was surprised to hear about a phenomena that was new to me but apparently a bit of a star on the internet. A recent survey by me, Sunday evening at dinner, received one yes and one no when I asked if anyone had heard of Bloop. That means that an average of 1 out of every 2 people have heard of it...I'm pretty sure that's how surveys work. So, by now, half off my readers should be scrolling down to look at the sneezing panda again whilst the other half are waiting with baited breath for me to enlighten them!

Bloop is the name given to a sound repeatedly recorded in 1997 by underwater microphones in the South Pacific. The microphones were originally placed to try to pick up the noise made by soviet submarines. Microphones all over the world pick up a variety of sounds emanating from the Earths oceans, they have names like Slowdown, Upsweep, Train and Whistle. What makes Bloop special is that it is the only sound that has been recorded that bears all the hallmarks of a living creature. Ok, so it's a whale with wind. No, it's not. The sound much louder than any ever recorded by a marine creature, the two microphones that picked it up were 3,000 miles apart, and the creature, if that is what it is, has been estimated to be many times bigger than a Blue Whale. Blue Whales are around 100ft or just over 30 metres long so that what make Bloop...bloody big!

Next week...I shall be reporting on the carrot shaped like a tomato.