A chemistry professor at Memorial University and his students have confirmed that gooey blobs that started to wash up on beaches in Placentia Bay last month are man-made.

Chris Kozak of MUN’s Chemistry Department put his students on the case and it turns out that the sticky blobs contain polyvinyl acetate, which is a type of glue – something like carpenter’s glue or white glue.

“This stuff is definitely a much more potent, concentrated version of it” says Kozak. “There’s probably something else in there as well.”

The mystery doesn’t end there however, where the stuff came from and why is not yet known.

“Now that I have an idea as to what its chemical make up is, now I’m trying to figure out where this would be used in such a large scale. I think it has something to do with some heavy industry that’s happening in here either shipping or fishing.” He says besides being used as an adhesive, it can also potentially be used as a coagulant for oil spills.”

The bottom line says Kozak is the material amounts to plastic pollution and has no place in the environment.