https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-24/sa-algal-bloom-outbreak/105300602
"The breathtaking coastline of Waitpinga Beach — known as “Waits” to locals —
is famed for its strong swells and rugged hills. But Waitpinga quite literally
took Anthony Rowland’s breath away, when he found himself in the middle of a
toxic algal bloom not yet visible to the human eye.
In the early hours of Saturday, March 15, Mr Rowland went to Waits with some
friends. Shortly after arriving, he began to feel sick. “I did notice when I
was walking down the steps that I felt like … maybe I’ve got a flu coming on,”
he recalled. “You know, just your taste is a little bit off. But I didn’t think
anything of it.”
The water was glistening as usual, and as the sun rose more people arrived to
catch a wave. But it wasn’t long before he and his friends started coughing,
and when they returned to their cars, other beachgoers were experiencing the
same symptoms. “I started looking around, it was quite a busy car park and I
noticed like these guys were coughing, they were coughing, everyone was
coughing here and there, and I was like, ‘Alright, something’s really not right
here …’” he said.
He took to social media to share his experience, and realised dozens of others,
including those who hadn’t been in the water, were also reporting coughs, sore
throats and stinging eyes. One surfer said his vision was impacted so badly it
was like he was “looking through the end of two Coke bottles”. Mr Rowland
reported the matter to authorities but felt like no-one was taking him
seriously.
The next day, a brown foam appeared at Waitpinga Beach, as well as a handful of
dead leafy sea dragons. On Monday, Mr Rowland returned to the beach with
ABC
reporter Caroline Horn to find the foam “five times worse” as well as scores of
dead sea creatures. “Every lineal metre, there was at least five or six [dead]
fish,” he said.
By that afternoon, authorities closed both Waitpinga and Parsons beaches to
investigate whether a “fish mortality event” had occurred and warned people not
to swim. Mr Rowland did not know it yet, but he and other beachgoers had come
into contact with an algal bloom called
Karenia mikimotoi, which can be
lethal to sea life, and cause flu-like symptoms in humans.
Marine biologist and UTS researcher Shauna Murray said the bloom was a type of
marine phytoplankton, which could not always be seen. “So, they’re not visible
as cells to the naked eye, but you can see the colouring, so when they’re
extremely abundant you can see a sort of slight … water discolouration that is
reddy, brown … but not always,” she said. “It depends on the density of the
bloom at the time.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
