About a month ago, residents of St. Lawrence Island found a patch of oily, white goo on the beach, along with some dead sea birds covered in the substance.
Biogenic oil sample on a gauze pad from a larger sample of the mystery substance.
Gay Sheffield 17-June-2020
The carcass of one of the eight short-tailed shearwaters sent from Savoonga to Nome. You can see the biogenic (non-petroleum based) oil that has come off the feathers and dulled the shine of the new tray.