Huge Toxic Algal Bloom Shuts Down West Coast Fisheries

[longknife]

This shouldn't surprise anybody. We've got young seals washing ashore near starving. Some might say it's due to the big “radioactive” stuff from the Japanese nuke plant. As the following says, it could simply be Global Warming.


Read more @ Huge Toxic Algal Bloom Shuts Down West Coast Fisheries ThinkProgress

 

[westwall]

And yet the algal bloom way back in 1988 was bigger. Who knew?

 

[Old Rocks]

Mr. Westwall, that is not at all what the article states.

Huge Toxic Algal Bloom Shuts Down West Coast Fisheries ThinkProgress

Commercial and recreational fisheries up and down the West Coast have been forced to close as a result of a massive toxic algal bloom, which scientists are describing as one of the largest in history.

“We have received reports of this particular bloom causing problems as far south as Monterey Bay and we’ve heard from our colleagues in Homer, Alaska that they’re seeing these cells,” Vera Trainer, manager of the Marine Biotoxin Program at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, told ThinkProgress. “It’s geographically very widespread, more so than we’ve seen in the past.”

The last time an algal bloom of comparative size occurred on the West Coast was in 1988. That bloom stretched from San Diego up to Washington.

phytoplankton — proliferate in huge numbers. This proliferation results in a buildup of toxins such as domoic acid, a powerful and fatal neurotoxin. High concentrations of algae — or domoic acid — aren’t uncommon, occurring in the Pacific primarily in the fall, when ocean temperatures tend to be at their warmest. But according to Dan Ayers, coastal shellfish manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to see such an intense and extensive concentration of toxic algae in the late spring and summer months is more rare.

From Monteray Bay to Homer, Alaska is a bit further than from San Diego to Washington.