“This is unprecedented in terms of the extent and magnitude of this harmful algal bloom and the warm water conditions we’re seeing offshore…” Captions: NOAA. Photograph: © SAF – Coastal Care
Excerpts;
A vast bloom of toxic algae off the West Coast is denser, more widespread and deeper than scientists feared even weeks ago…
NOAA Fisheries mobilizes to gauge unprecedented West Coast toxic algal bloom, NOAA (06-2015)
The bloom stretches from the Central California Coast north to Washington and possibly Alaska, and involves some of the highest concentrations of the natural toxin domoic acid ever observed.
While localized blooms of marine algae that naturally produce domoic acid are common in spring, the bloom that began earlier this year has grown into the largest and most severe in more than a decade. Sardines, anchovy and other fish that feed on the algae and other microorganisms known as plankton can accumulate the toxin, in turn poisoning birds and sea lions that feed on them…
Wave of Toxic Green Beaches, France; By Sharlene Pilkey
With beaches and coastlines all over the world already under attack from sea level rise, pollution, mining, driving, seawall construction and human development encroachment, another menace is mounting an assault…
Green And Golden Seaweed Tides On The Rise, By Victor Smetacek & Adriana Zingone
Green, brown and red seaweeds lying on the beach are part and parcel of life in many coastal regions. The amount of beached seaweed biomass started to increase along the shores of industrialized countries in the 1970s, and by the 1990s had become a nuisance along many beaches when mass-stranding events of macroalgae became known as green tides…
