Scripps researcher Ed Parnell said he doesn’t think the red tide would significantly affect giant kelp, though it may crowd out sunlight from lower growing species of seaweed. “My mom lives in Carlsbad and she said it was pretty pungent.”īioluminescent algae lit up San Diego beaches, before rotting and wafting odors inland.Īlso at issue have been rafts of seaweed washing ashore during the red tide event. “It’s been red tide at Ocean Beach, and we have been swimming and surfing,” she said. The red tide hasn’t deterred the family from their neighboring beach either, said his mother, Lorraine Galvin. “It was kind of normal,” said Warren Galvin, 12, of Point Loma, who visited Moonlight Beach with his family. Although the water was an unsettling shade of brownish orange, beachgoers took advantage of the newly reopened beaches to walk, wade and swim. Moonlight Beach in Encinitas exuded a briny, metallic tang, rather than the full stench of decomposition. Last week, the smell was strong in South Carlsbad, and then abated a bit in Leucadia. “People have been very much intrigued and engaged with us on this issue,” she said. Nancy Shrodes, Heal the Bay’s associate director of policy and outreach, said this week has provided a good opportunity to educate the public about this natural phenomenon. The length and density of this red tide have been unusual, and local environmental groups have been flooded with messages from the community. Some in Redondo Beach have reported seeing dead fish surfacing in King Harbor. From Hermosa Beach to Venice and further up the Santa Monica Bay, folks have kept their windows shut and wondered when the rotten smell would go away. We’ve heard reports of fish kills, and dead fish washing up on beaches and coastal lagoons.”Īcross Los Angeles County, coastal residents have also bemoaned the tide’s stinky aftereffects. “So especially in enclosed areas or the bottom of the ocean where that settles out, that causes extremely low oxygen levels that can be harmful to other animals, especially fish. “They’re very metabolically active through their respiration, and they use up a lot of oxygen,” Latz said. Video and photos show an algae bloom in the South Bay producing a neon-blue light along the shoreline at night in Hermosa Beach. In a process called nitrogen fixation, Trichodesmium sucks nitrogen gas from the air and turns it into ammonia, an easy-to-access fuel for marine algae species.California Glowing blue waves lighting up SoCal coastline roll into the South Bay But Trichodesmium is special: It pulls most of its nitrogen from the atmosphere. Most of the algae species studied throughout the Gulf of Mexico are stymied by the limited amount of nitrogen in the water that the organisms need to feed. Hubbard said it’s likely offshore of every county from Pinellas to Collier. Over the past week, water samples also detected the presence of sea sawdust in Manatee and Collier counties, according to the research institute. Now, the team is waiting for a clear sky this week to capture more aerial imagery and assess its location and size, Hubbard said. They found it on Redington Beach and Sunset Beach, according to the research institute. Hubbard’s team tests the water for Trichodesmium regularly, and biologists verified a bloom along the Pinellas coast on May 17 and again on May 19. It turns atmospheric nitrogen into a form that is easily accessible for other algae species, including red tide. A bloom of "sea sawdust" has been lingering off the Pinellas County coast for at least the past week, according to Florida researchers.
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