Sea-ing Red

San Diego County waters are seeing some of the longest and most impressive red tides in recent memory!

So just what is a red tide?  Wikipedia offers a good definition of Algea Bloom AKA Red Tide.  Locals know it as a rank, reddish-brown occurrence that ocean lovers like surfers, swimmers and others hate to be in.  Some claim it can lead to illness, others do not.  Personally, I've never been sick as long as I'm swimming; not after a rain, not in red tide, never.  The old saying "that which does not kill you will make you stronger" applies to me!

While not all algal outbreaks are harmful, some blooms carry toxins that have been known to threaten marine ecosystems and even kill marine mammals, fish and birds.

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have ID'd a potential "red tide killer." Red tides and related phenomena in which microscopic algae accumulate rapidly in dense concentrations have increased in recent years, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide losses to fisheries and beach tourism activities. Despite their impacts, this phenomena, more often referred to as "harmful algal blooms," remain unpredictable in not only where they appear, but how long they persist.



No, this is not out of the Ten Commandments!



  

At night it offers a nifty light show from the bioluminescence and divers will tell you...it's pretty cool. 

Mike riding a Red Tide wave last week
(sorry the clarity is bad)

Laura Neubert on a recent dive at LJ Shores.
Note the surrounding water appears green during an algae bloom

"Our understanding of harmful algal blooms and red tides has been fairly primitive. For the most part we don't know how they start," a professor of biological oceanography in the Integrative Oceanography Division at Scripps has said in a recent interview.

Some other articles on the subject:

• North County Times
• Los Angeles Times
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• SignOn San Diego
• CaliforniaDiver