There are some very simple pleasures in life that make you feel the warm sand between your bare fingers while looking at the sea. The idyllic scene can probably be a bit stigmatized if you want to go home looking for unnecessarily stained black soles.
This is happening to people who have recently visited the shores of the San-Padukas in Maine and New England, but it is thought that the culprit is finally tied up. One affected stroller is Jenny Greenleaf who spoke to the New York Times about her experience of confusion. Greenleaf walked barefoot to the beach just to get home, and their footsteps were stained with a substance that was not seen as an oily texture, a historically common pollutant on the beach.
A video report from the News Center Maine (below) states that the substance has been proven not to be petroleum-based, leading people to wonder what else it could be. According to the AP, Maine Geological Survey Steve Dixon’s marine geologist has decided to remove this challenge. Working with two local retired oceanographers, they sampled for further investigation with the help of a microscope and, curiously, found the black object as millions of tiny insects. “This is the first time I’ve seen or heard this in my 35 years,” Dickinson told the AP.
The incident was reported by Jim Britt, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry in Maine, who explained that the animal appeared to be an algae fly. These juvenile bugs eat perishable food on the beach so are common residents of the beach. For some reason, it appears that they have died among millions of people at certain ends of the beach where they are trampling pedestrians.
They produce naturally occurring pigments in the same way as cochineal red which is derived from the powder up beetle. It is hoped that pinpointing the exact species of calf fly will bring more answers, but for now Britt has revealed that there is no obvious threat to human health beyond being a bit hilarious.
Potentially less environmentally destructive than oil spills, there are some people for whom perhaps some petroleum baby might be less disgusting. “… It’s actually horrible; One Twitter user wrote, “Spots on the shores of Maine are millions of unused and will probably like it from the unprecedented mass deaths …” wrote a Twitter user.
