Weird neon green slime in the water
July 26th, 2010, 3:50 pm · · posted by Laylan Connelly, staff writer
If you’ve paddled out in the past few days, you might have noticed weird, neon green slimy stuff floating around in the water next to you.
I was out at 36th Street in Newport Beach this morning, where with each breaking wave, the green stuff was lighting up the whitewash and creating a strange color that had me praying it wasn’t toxic and ending up in my mouth.
The neon stuff – which some are saying is algae – floated around near shore along the coast the past few days. When I saw it this morning between jetties in West Newport, the green stuff was forming bubbles on the water’s surface. When a wave broke around a surfer riding the wave, the wave would turn green around him – not a pretty “I’m in the Caribbean” green, but an “I hope I don’t wake up with a third eye” kind of green.
OC Register reporter Pat Brennan put in a call to the Orange County Health Agency – they have no idea what this stuff is either.
“The Orange County Health Care Agency has been unable to identify the substance, but so far has found no evidence of bacterial contamination, and no illnesses have been reported,” said program manager Larry Honeybourne.
I’m not the only one who has noticed this stuff. I met up with US Open champ Brett Simpson this morning for an interview about the upcoming competition, and he said he’s been surfing in it, but has no idea what it is.
“It’s kind of freaking me out,” he said.
Surf photographer John Salanoa – who snaps photos for OrangeCounty.com along the coast – said it’s been stretching from Seal Beach to Lowers.
OC Register reporter Peggy Lowe sent me an article by The Long Beach Press Telegram, which reported that health officials said it was a bright green algal bloom that appears each year, and surfers and swimmers should attempt to avoid direct contact with the “floating film.” Read more here.
An expert in the story said the bloom is the result of increased temperatures. But this morning, the water was still chilly enough to need a full suit to surf.
Long-time lifeguards and surfers I’ve talked to say they have never seen algae like this in the past. Simpson, who has surfed the pier his whole life, said he’s never seen the stuff before. Same with Huntington Beach lifeguard Lt. Mike Beuerlein.
Beuerlein said the OC Health Care Agency has been out to test the waters, but so far the tests have come back negative for toxins.
“There’s no reason to believe it’s harmful,” he said.
A surfer sits in green slime while dolphins pass. Photo courtesy of John Salanoa
A lifeguard sent me this photo of a surfer paddling out in the stuff in Huntington Beach.
Is his board naturally green, or is the weird stuff giving it a nice glow...
Have you surfed in this funky green stuff? Tell us when and where below in the comments section.
Another photo of the green stuff
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BEACHAPEDIA – your guide to the coast
Local surfers recognized
Just did today. Thought it was strange but figured it was just some form of algai.
I was at uppers monday night and it was all over, kinda eerie. I live further north so i surf bolsa no sign of it in the water there but. I guess its from seal beach to the south weirdddd.
i was out at the pier today and saw the bubbly substance. looks like it was accompanied with an oil or fuel sheen near and under the pier. very disgusting. some of the junior life guards paddling through went head on with the clusters of bubbles and created more after going through them.
I’m a junior lifeguard at HB and we swam strait through it and it diddn’t seem toxic, but more or less like pee.
Definitely not paddling out in it, nor am I allowing my dogs to swim in it!
Not getting near that stuff. No telling what that stuff is and with all the stuff they pump out there from the waste water plant it could very well be something toxic…every year (it seems) there’s something up with the bacterial levels. Time to get serious with polluters.. Hope this gets handled soon, til then…no way
wow laguna beach and mathatten beach are so much cleaner thats bacteria no way am i swimming there!!!
Surfed Laguna last Thursday and Friday…it was there too
drove through Laguna yesterday it was full of that foam.
I surfed in something like this back in 1982 at Brookhurst St. with the exception that there was no funky stuff floating around, but rather, the water was bright green, just like that goo.
Hey, at least it’s not an oil slick!
Hey when I was riding the San Gabriel river bike path. I saw this gross yellow like foam coming from the run off of this power plant… I took a picture of it and thought it was disgusting that it’s polluting the water. This was like a week ago and would go straight out between Seal Beach and Long Beach River jette… Do you think this is what”s causing the slime???
Algae blooms are directly related to high nitrate levels in saltwater fishtanks. We had more than average GIANT sewage spills this Spring and lots of wetland “refurbishing” or whatever you want to call it. All of that pollution does not just disappear into some abyss. It’s probably absorbed by the sand and stays relatively nearshore traveling up and down the coastline with switches in swell direction. The last few big swells and high tides may have stirred it up. This video about our backwards abuse of the natural water cycle is a bit long but makes a LOT of sense, and pretty entertaining. If you have been in the water since Spring or a lot in your life, Manhattan Beach and Laguna included, you have probably been exposed to much worse. Don’t drink the seawater, rinse off, use ear and eye drops, and take a shower when you get home. Watch this! http://vimeo.com/10328536
the stuff is all over, i’ve seen it at hb, newport, corona, laguna, salt creek, and all over trestles… it’s probably toxic. not stoked about it at all.
Went out of Dana point on my boat on Sunday and it was present around the jetty. Spent my entire life on the southern California ocean never seen this before. Reminds me of red tide but in a different color. Power boats were kicking this stuff up in their wake which appeared bright yellow. Been told it is allege and not harmful, my question is what does this stuff feed on and why all of sudden is it present?
surfed strands today and it was everywhere. kinda scary.
After surfing in the green stuff I developed red splotches on the palms of my hands, on the tops of my feet and a little bit on my face. I was wearing a full suit, so they appeared where my skin was exposed. It was not painful, but it was irritating. I used dandruff shampoo and cortesone on the splotches, and they are disappearing after about 3 days.
I’m planning on going back out on Sunday, but will definitely try to avoid the green as much as possible!
Anybody else get something similar?
Hi Dan, thanks for letting us know… I haven’t seen the green stuff for a while, so think you should be safe on Sunday. I actually had really dry and flaky skin for a few days after going into that stuff, and had a similar itch on my neck that went away eventually. Weird!
Leucadia has had the green stuff for the alst 7 seven days. It must be moving south. I’ve seen it in years past, just can’t recall which ones.
When I went to the beach on Friday, my sister and I saw the ocean over at Torrey Pines and saw a huge amount of that, and we thought it was toxic. It looked like somebody spilled hazardous waste onto the ocean. We asked somebody what that green stuff is. They were confused because they didn’t know what it was either. We went in the water bit we left an hour later since the green stuff was creeping us out a bit and the was pretty much cold.
That nasty green stuff is at the Ocean Beach (San Diego) pier too!!!
i saw this stuff in huntington beach
and i asked locals if they knew what it was
but no one knew