Comments on: Algae beach party

By: John Personna

John Personna — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 12:17:00 +0000

It looks green and happy … are we sure this never happens naturally?

(Increased biomass is only bad if it leads to a crash.)

By: K

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 02:21:00 +0000

As it sucks up all the nitrates and other nutrients from the fertilizer runoff, I wonder if some locals collect it and reuse it as fertilizer. It’s great for gardens. I imagine it would take a massive effort to collect and transport large amounts.

By: Vermontist

Vermontist — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:43:00 +0000

I would have to be on fire before I went in to that algae covered water, and even then I might consider rolling in the sand as an alternative.

By: Tim Waters

Tim Waters — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:17:00 +0000

It appears that most of the people on the beach are collecting the algae and putting it into white bags. They also have buckets.
What can it be used for? Fertilizer? Food?

By: speleothem

speleothem — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:23:00 +0000

The algae were in the news during the ’08 Beijing Olympics when Qingdao was the venue for the Sailing Competition. Huge quantities had to be gathered up before the races could take place. I think they ended up composting the algae, and there was talk about making this into an industry of its own.

By: euro-kiwi

euro-kiwi — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:55:00 +0000

more likely, though, is that somebody has been having some cute fun with Photoshop

By: GawainLavers

GawainLavers — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:45:00 +0000

More than 30 dead wild boars have been found on the coast of north-western France this month amid suspicion of algae poisoning, officials say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14324094

In 2009 a horse-rider was rendered unconscious and his mount died after slipping on the algae, apparently after inhaling toxic gas released by the rotting seaweed.

I think I'll skip the algae beach party.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:31:00 +0000

That’s very odd. Because one of the links is to a BoingBoing article, and the other is to National Geographic. Neither of which, to my knowledge, is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

I think your Murdoch Block might be borked.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Tai ma fan!

By: William George

William George — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:38:00 +0000

My Murdoch Block won’t let me look at the links.

(Funny how both are about endless streams of shit creating dead zones.)

By: ophmarketing

ophmarketing — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:25:00 +0000

Man…when Chicago dyes the river green for St. Patrick’s Day, they could only HOPE for results like this.

By: Blaze Curry

Blaze Curry — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:09:00 +0000

The red dragon is hungry, and eats everything around it. There will NEVER be effective environmental laws in the prc. Because of the aforementioned fact.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:30:00 +0000

Why is everyone at that golf course standing in the sand trap?

By: David Yoon

David Yoon — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:28:00 +0000

…and people are swimming in it? Why?!

By: satn

satn — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:43:00 +0000

Well most humans associate that green color with healthy grass, trees etc. It even looks like a lawn.

Now if it was dark red or brown, that would look a lot less healthy (as it actually is) to most people.

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:19:00 +0000

You think so? Seems to me a neon green ocean is no less intuitively disturbing than a red or brown ocean.

By: Donny Viszneki

Donny Viszneki — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:43:00 +0000

> While the algae aren’t toxic, big blooms can create oxygen-poor “dead
zones” in the water and leave an unpleasant odor on beaches.

*ahem*

> oxygen-poor “dead
zones”

> unpleasant odor

By: Snig

Snig — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Dead zones around the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_(ecology)

Big deal with relatively little media attention.

Also, recently an algae bloom tried to eat Jim Inhofe, but spat him out. Too much crazy.

By: satn

satn — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:36:00 +0000

It’s unfortunate that a bright green species of algae is causing these blooms. The headlines would be much more dire if it were one of the red or brown types.

By: David Wattenbarger

David Wattenbarger — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:35:00 +0000

Can we scoop that stuff up and dump into methane digesters?