Another look at suspected Alki (and beyond) algae bloom: Aerial

July 5, 2009 at 8:27 pm | In Environment, Seen at sea, West Seattle news | 12 Comments

No official verdict yet but most accounts of the mucky water reported late Friday seem to conclude it was an algae bloom. Here’s an aerial view sent by Craig, who explains, “Flew up to Sequim and back (Friday), and saw this scungy yellow stuff all over the place. It was from near Port Townsend down to Alki and beyond. This picture is the Kingston [map] ferry.”

12 Comments

  1. Amazing photo. Thanks for sharing.

    Comment by angelescrest — 9:28 pm July 5, 2009 #

  2. Ewwwwwwwwwww! That is no good! Glad to hear its natural and not some oil slick or something else!

    Comment by Living in West Seattle Since 1985 — 9:45 pm July 5, 2009 #

  3. was on the Bainbridge ferry yesterday plowing through some of that stinky muck…really gross. Maybe the cooler weather will slow it down some…

    Comment by JanS — 10:18 pm July 5, 2009 #

  4. I wonder if the hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage from that Bainbridge incident have something to do with this. It seems plausible that all that nitrogen would encourage an algae bloom.

    Comment by cjboffoli — 11:04 pm July 5, 2009 #

  5. Didn’t stop our daughter from swimming at Alki on Saturday for a surprising amount of time given the water temperature, though she did come out shivering and covered in gunk.

    Comment by Tom — 12:04 am July 6, 2009 #

  6. Your daughter will probably have swimmers itch or whatever it is! Gross!

    Comment by JH — 7:17 am July 6, 2009 #

  7. There is nothing “natural” about an algae bloom, except that it is a natural response to pollution.

    A natural, healthy forest ecosystem filters nutrients from water flowing from the streams.

    The loss of forest in the watershed area, the use of chemical fertilizers on lawns, failing septic systems, and the recent major sewage spill all contribute to very un-naturally high levels of nitrogen, and especially phosphorus.

    Very few people remember the history of water quality issues here. Or understand the science. Or make the connection between what they put down the drain at home or on the lawn and the water that the Orcas live in.

    Comment by Michael J Swassing — 7:52 am July 6, 2009 #

  8. saw loads of this stuff while sailing off bainbridge last weekend. our friend was calling it ‘diatomes’?

    Comment by lina — 9:41 am July 6, 2009 #

  9. Also saw it from the ferry back from Bainbridge yesterday. It’s pretty bad when Puget Sound looks like Green Lake.

    Comment by Paul in Gatewood — 10:20 am July 6, 2009 #

  10. It covered our swimming beach at Indianola (Kitsap Peninsula) this weekend, thankfully we didn’t get any “swimmer’s itch”, nor did it stink.

    Comment by jsrekd — 10:43 am July 6, 2009 #

  11. Swimmers itch is a fresh water parasite – not possible in salt water. However there is no question that we need to continue to reduce fertilizers going into the Sound, there are many bad consequences such as this bloom.

    Comment by wseye — 7:58 pm July 6, 2009 #

  12. This has been occuring for weeks. What started out as light yellow whisps is now brown/orange, and thick. The float plane pilots have not seen it this bad.

    Comment by mosaicman@norberrytile.com — 10:31 am July 7, 2009 #

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