Sea foam teeming with bacteria, zooplankton, and other micro organisms looked otherworldly as it rolled across beaches, into a national park, and onto a forested hiking trail on Vancouver Island this week.
And photographer David McColm caught the river of bubbly spume on camera, which he said was chest deep in some parts. (See his incredible footage below.)
The undulating sea foam took over Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Tuesday and Wednesday, looking like "West Coast snow," as the folks in British Columbia call it. But, although it may have looked like a winter wonderland, the fluffy lather — usually not harmful —could be toxic "if it includes contaminants or if an algae bloom is in progress," according to the Vancouver Sun.
So, along with a "an extreme wave hazard advisory," due to 32-footers, park officials were also "not encouraging people to play" in in the waves' aftermath, aka the sea foam.
Front page thumbnail image: Ronald Wilfred Jansen / shutterstock.com