ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The toxic algae blooms in the Pacific Ocean stretching from southern California to Alaska — already the largest ever recorded — appear to have reached as far as the Aleutian Islands, scientists say.
“The anecdotal evidence suggests we’re having a major event,” said Bruce Wright, a scientist with the Aleutian Pribilof Island Association, the federally recognized tribal organization of Alaska’s native Aleuts. “All the populations [of marine mammals] are way down in the Aleutians.”
While algal blooms are not uncommon in the Pacific, 2015’s blooms appear to be the largest on record, scientists say. Stretching from Southern California to Alaska, the blooms are responsible for unprecedented closures of fisheries and unusual deaths of marine life up and down the Pacific coast.
Pseudo-nitzchia is one species of algae that produces domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can be lethal to humans and wildlife. The toxin is ingested by shellfish and krill that, when consumed, pass the toxin onto the predator — in some cases, people.
Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said climate change may be a factor enabling the blooms to thrive. “I think, personally, it’s quite possible that these warm conditions just set up the ideal incubator conditions for this organism. It’s doing really well and lasting a lot longer than usual.”
In California, researchers in Monterey Bay observed some of the highest levels of the toxin ever seen. Oregon’s Department of Agriculture has shut down recreational harvest of razor clams along much of its coast. In Washington, authorities instituted an unprecedented closure of the state’s lucrative Dungeness crab fisheries. A fishery near Vancouver was closed in June over concerns of the algae’s toxin, which can cause seizures and death if consumed by humans.
“It’s definitely the largest bloom of this particular algae seen on the West Coast, possibly anywhere, ever” Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz, told CBS News.
“If you think of Qingdao, China, where they had the ‘green tide’ during the Olympics, that was even larger, but it wasn’t producing toxins.”
You wouldn’t know it by looking — the bloom consists of microscopic algae that give the water a vague brown-green cast — but chemical analyses and satellite images show that a large swath of the ocean is being overtaken by a single-celled algae called Pseudo-nitzschia that produces domoic acid, a powerful neurotoxin.
“The chains we saw off California are some of the longest we’ve ever seen,” Anthony Odell said.
Odell is one of several analysts studying pseudo-nitzschia. It’s phytoplankton that produces toxic domoic acid. Odell took samples on a boat in the Pacific Ocean for several weeks, charting a bloom that causes severe neurological damage.
“It looked like it was grown in a lab, it was so thick,” Odell explained.
According to Odell, the toxic algal cells were healthy and robust. The bloom extended 40 miles wide and 640 feet deep.
It’s the same bloom that’s kept Staci Bruce from harvesting razor clams all year on the Quinault Indian Nation beaches. The clams are filled with domoic acid and may be for the rest of the year.
Some worry it’s a sign the bloom is spelling doom for shellfish.
“I would be kind of lost without the beach and clam digging. I wouldn’t know what to do,” Bruce said.
Bruce is a member of the Quinault Indian Nation, a people whose centuries-old relationship with razor clams is now in jeopardy.
Add to it, a large portion of Dungeness crab fisheries also closed because of domoic acid.
“It’s unthinkable to imagine a time in the future where we’re explaining to our young children what shellfish and razor clams tasted like, looked like and no longer exist,” said Quinault President Fawn Sharp.
But experts like Odell worry that day may come. Marine life are already suffering, their food sources contaminated.
Toxic algae caused a sea lion’s seizure, recently spotted near Ocean Shores. Far out in the ocean on Odell’s trip, he spotted marine mammals that appeared sick or starving.
Toxic Algae are not just a threat in the Pacific, inland waters like Lake Erie, beset by climate warming, invasive species, and agricultural runnoff, are seeing toxic algae threats as well.
Researchers are warning that Lake Erie may be in for one of the biggest algae blooms in recent years.
A new report from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which has begun routinely putting together bloom forecasts, found that heavy rains throughout the month of June could lead to the largest bloom of harmful algae in the Great Lake since a record-setting event in 2011 covered 2,000 square miles of water in swirling green slime.
“This forecast allows all those who need to plan to have advance warning,” said Richard Stumpf, an oceanographer with NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Science.
That means cities will be prepared to start water treatment and organizations that monitor lake quality can be at the ready.
The cyanobacterial algae found in Lake Erie can decimate fish populations by consuming oxygen in the water and creating so-called dead zones. It also produces toxins that are harmful to humans, restricting access to swimming and other lake activities, and requiring drinking water to be treated and filtered.
Blooms are common in August and September — but some blooms are worse than others. NOAA measures the severity on a 10-point scale. The bloom of 2011 — the worst observed in the lake — ranked a 10. Last year’s bloom measured 6.5 on the index, which was high enough to contaminate the drinking water of 400,000 people in Toledo.
The estimate is that this bloom is likely to measure 8.7 in severity, and possibly as high as 9.5.
Algae requires a balance of nitrogen and phosphorus to grow. Lakes, Erie included, have plenty of the former, but don’t naturally contain enough phosphorus to sustain a major bloom. However, a rainy June caused massive agricultural runoff, feeding the western part of the lake with phosphorus primarily from soil and fertilizer.
Dr. Alan Steinman is an Aquatic biologist specializing in these types of algae, and the Great Lakes ecosystem in general. His excellent interview is below. Seriously worthwhile if you have not seen it.
No comments? Did everyone miss this post? This is a BIG deal, folks, and those who don’t understand that fact need to study up on it.
Peter has done a great job of finding clips from articles and videos to explain the phenomenon. The video of Dr. Steinman is truly “worthwhile”—Peter asks good questions, and the doctor gives one of the best explanations on the topic you will ever see.
Algae blooms in both fresh and salt water threaten humans directly in a number of ways, they are happening more frequently and are bigger because of AGW, Considering how many people rely on the oceans for sustenance, a “Silent Oceans” scenario brought on by toxins and bioaccumulation thereof is scary stuff indeed.