The beach has turned green

[yellowbeard]

This morning on the beaches north of Newcastle NSW there was an eerie green chemical-like substance washing up onto the beaches. I've never seen this before. There was a strong southerly current running around Mungo and The Gibber.
One thinks of algae etc. -- but just having seen the news, it was reported that a green chemical is colouring the beaches in Cairns.
Anyone know what this is?

[Fish_gutz]

could be phosphorous ( not sure on spelling) but it glows in the dark and can be seen glowing in the wake of the engine of the boat. not sure if this is the same green stuff your talking but hope this helps. cheers Andrew

[tunaticer]

it is either an algae or bacteria bloom. I struck a massive one near 1770 about 12 yrs back and it landed about a foot deep on the beaches and created a real smelly mess. That one was a mixture of both algae and bacteria.

[struktcha_man]

yeah it would be an algal bloom for sure

cheers

[FNQCairns]

This might be a coincidence although the zealots got some news time this evening over satellite pics::) of the outflow from the wet period we just went through, entire beat up it was, have yet to hear of any green stuff on beaches.

cheers fnq

[yellowbeard]

Couldn't see any algae of substance in the colouring. It also had a bit of froth about it. Just wondering if this affects the fish -- that we ate last night!
There was also a lot of red weed around -- and as I've said an unusually strong current flowing to the south (they normally flow to the north).

[tunaticer]

Wehn i struck upon it at 1770 the algae part of it was suspended immediately beneath the foam and formed a 30 mile long by 20 metre wide unbroken string of it on average.
This effectively became a massive bait net that schooled all the baitfish up and the pelagics went bezerk beside the wall of foam. Best pelagic action i have ever encountered for two full days.

[warti]

Its just about to happen again. I was out at masthead yesterday and travelled through alot of brown algae but a fair bit of it closer to the island was a funky green colour. However, as you stated the baitfish were hanging around this mess. On friday went chasing fish with lures and ended out the front of facing casting into big bait schools under the algae and the tea leaf trevally were super thick. Drifted into a clearer patch only to see a big school of cobes under the boat whom would not take any offering. Very frustrating but thats fishing.

[tunaticer]

THANKS Warti!!!! And here I am stuck in Brisbane waiting for a phone call for work.........DAMN!!

[Slider]

Yellowbeard, along the Noosa North Shore and Fraser Island, we get an algae with northerly winds that is not a weed but turns the surf zone green and then brown unless a cool southerly turns up to kill it off. Usually occurs after rainfall causes the streams to rise. The algae - anaulus australis washes dead onto the beaches after a southerly arrives to kill it off as a green slime on the edge of the water. This may be what you're talking about?? It's non toxic but deoxygenates the surf and the fish aren't fond of that.

I noticed over the holiday period with all the media reports of sharks etc that there seems to be beaches all round the country that have algal blooms present - wonder if people recognise one when they see them.

For example - had a few bundy's this afternoon with a man that many people on this site know and is famous for his tailor fishing in this region. He wasn't aware at all that this algae has been plaguing us for years. He knew about hincksia but ... doesn't everyone around here.

Then it could be lyngbia which washes onto the beach as a thick green weed, but usually occurs in sheltered bays. I'm thinking anaulus australis for where you are.

Tunaticer is referring to trichodesmium under which the baitfish tend to hide which is why the pelagics can be found around it. This occurs mainly around the Barrier Reef and moves south in 'rafts' with the currents and wind.

Bound to be algal blooms around Cairns with all the fertilisers washing out from the cane hey FNQ?

[FNQCairns]

Yellowbeard, along the Noosa North Shore and Fraser Island, we get an algae with northerly winds that is not a weed but turns the surf zone green and then brown unless a cool southerly turns up to kill it off. Usually occurs after rainfall causes the streams to rise. The algae - anaulus australis washes dead onto the beaches after a southerly arrives to kill it off as a green slime on the edge of the water. This may be what you're talking about?? It's non toxic but deoxygenates the surf and the fish aren't fond of that.

I noticed over the holiday period with all the media reports of sharks etc that there seems to be beaches all round the country that have algal blooms present - wonder if people recognise one when they see them.

For example - had a few bundy's this afternoon with a man that many people on this site know and is famous for his tailor fishing in this region. He wasn't aware at all that this algae has been plaguing us for years. He knew about hincksia but ... doesn't everyone around here.

Then it could be lyngbia which washes onto the beach as a thick green weed, but usually occurs in sheltered bays. I'm thinking anaulus australis for where you are.

Tunaticer is referring to trichodesmium under which the baitfish tend to hide which is why the pelagics can be found around it. This occurs mainly around the Barrier Reef and moves south in 'rafts' with the currents and wind.

Bound to be algal blooms around Cairns with all the fertilisers washing out from the cane hey FNQ?

Why pull me head out from the sand;) not a watermelon in sight down there.

Yeah I blame captain cook, after all he travelled the length of the reef all the while adding yellow streams of N & P over the side due to copious banana consumption and scrubbing the decks I assume the banana's because after all they did hit a reef:-X.

Silly bloke not putting 2 and 2 together when as he sailed through blooms of cyanobacteria:-[ that he alone by todays zealot standards was the cause.

I do understand that the aesthetics of brown waves on foreshores look just as bad now as it did 600years ago but what can you do? it's a natural phenomenon. And yes I do get the fresh water outflow/localised diatom link.

Every time I travel offshore and run through a 'scum of dead dishwater' looking bloom of cyanobacteria i think go you good thing!!

Anna bligh with her entrenched Zealot's view of the environment would have a different view to solid reasoned science.

But back to reasoning behind the recent rash of reporting natural events (including the passing of off in media of outflow as a bloom::)) as the devil, one needs to look no further than the WWF et al and cane farmers, inshore reef areas and upcoming putative laws.

At least in this they have never been so right, which isn't much considering ALL of the putative laws at least regarding the common man and the the reef so far cannot make any difference, whatever that should be.

I wonder when CC described the blooms those many years ago he could have envisaged that by todays watermelon first standards he being human and there, would have been held 100% culpable for what is entirely natural.

cheers fnq

[Slider]

Are you a cane farmer mate?

[FNQCairns]

No not me and never met one well enough to know he was, just sick of the zealots using anything and everything sloppy in science to push their extremist and preservationist agender against those without a voice...don't get me started on the crown of thorn con job, grey nurse, coral trout, green zone justifications.....

cheers fnq

[Slider]

'Zealot'? think you've mistaken me for someone else. Only going by factual scenarios which you have no knowledge on - obviously.

[GBP1978]

I have to laugh when I read Sliders post the fishings up the creek because of the netters one post the the farmers get the blame for the algal blooms meaning he can't catch a fish the next??

[Slider]

Perhaps both are a problem. Laugh hard but you won't be catching fish as a result of either.

[Slider]

I love it when people with no idea come on and try and undermine - go your hardest guys, I know what I'm doing here.

[GBP1978]

Slider why send my two abusive PMs one calling me a cock head and one asking if I have the balls to "show you what you got". I was simply putting foward my point of view and if this is how you put across your agenda then mate you win and your definently to tough for me.

[FNQCairns]

I didn't label you a zealot slider, if you where one it would be a direct waste of breath anyway, almost exclusively in conversation at 3 sentences long a person comes to understand they are 99% of the time doing nothing more than parroting extremist junk.

cheers fnq

[disorderly]

Ah so thats where all me fertilizer went......

Sorry about that Slider .....knew I shouldnt have bothered fertilizing all me heliconias this last couple of weeks...::):-X...

I guess it all washed down my creek with all the other millions of tonnes of topsoil and vegetative matter from the national park above us...;)

[BobbyJ123]

Yellowbeard, along the Noosa North Shore and Fraser Island, we get an algae with northerly winds that is not a weed but turns the surf zone green and then brown unless a cool southerly turns up to kill it off. Usually occurs after rainfall causes the streams to rise. The algae - anaulus australis washes dead onto the beaches after a southerly arrives to kill it off as a green slime on the edge of the water. This may be what you're talking about?? It's non toxic but deoxygenates the surf and the fish aren't fond of that.

I noticed over the holiday period with all the media reports of sharks etc that there seems to be beaches all round the country that have algal blooms present - wonder if people recognise one when they see them.

For example - had a few bundy's this afternoon with a man that many people on this site know and is famous for his tailor fishing in this region. He wasn't aware at all that this algae has been plaguing us for years. He knew about hincksia but ... doesn't everyone around here.

Then it could be lyngbia which washes onto the beach as a thick green weed, but usually occurs in sheltered bays. I'm thinking anaulus australis for where you are.

Tunaticer is referring to trichodesmium under which the baitfish tend to hide which is why the pelagics can be found around it. This occurs mainly around the Barrier Reef and moves south in 'rafts' with the currents and wind.

Bound to be algal blooms around Cairns with all the fertilisers washing out from the cane hey FNQ?

Spot on, mate, Trichodesmium is the name
http://previous.townsville.qld.gov.au/wwwdocs/health/TPL_Fact%20Sheets/Environmental%20Nuisances/Trichodesmium.pdf

[yellowbeard]

Yellowbeard, along the Noosa North Shore and Fraser Island, we get an algae with northerly winds that is not a weed but turns the surf zone green and then brown unless a cool southerly turns up to kill it off. Usually occurs after rainfall causes the streams to rise. The algae - anaulus australis washes dead onto the beaches after a southerly arrives to kill it off as a green slime on the edge of the water. This may be what you're talking about?? It's non toxic but deoxygenates the surf and the fish aren't fond of that.

I noticed over the holiday period with all the media reports of sharks etc that there seems to be beaches all round the country that have algal blooms present - wonder if people recognise one when they see them.

For example - had a few bundy's this afternoon with a man that many people on this site know and is famous for his tailor fishing in this region. He wasn't aware at all that this algae has been plaguing us for years. He knew about hincksia but ... doesn't everyone around here.

Then it could be lyngbia which washes onto the beach as a thick green weed, but usually occurs in sheltered bays. I'm thinking anaulus australis for where you are.

Tunaticer is referring to trichodesmium under which the baitfish tend to hide which is why the pelagics can be found around it. This occurs mainly around the Barrier Reef and moves south in 'rafts' with the currents and wind.

Bound to be algal blooms around Cairns with all the fertilisers washing out from the cane hey FNQ?

Thanks for that Slider, I found a bit more on anaulus australis here: http://plankt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/23/11/1233

The info that they are particularly found in rip currents and that "...aggregations occur in these environments due to their unique ability to attach to wave-generated gas bubbles and maintain buoyancy in surf foam.." seemed to nail this as anaulus australis.
If this happens again, don't think I'm not going to strut up and down the beach telling the other guys, "Oh that's just anaulus australis, bla,bla, bla... " :D

Cheers.

[FNQCairns]

Ah so thats where all me fertilizer went......

Sorry about that Slider .....knew I shouldnt have bothered fertilizing all me heliconias this last couple of weeks...::):-X...

I guess it all washed down my creek with all the other millions of tonnes of topsoil and vegetative matter from the national park above us...;)

yeah well keep it quiet Scott! The last thing the zealots want to hear is that you live right on the headwaters of a catchment with nothing above but virgin rainforest and have a creek that carries vast amounts of sediment and forest nutrient load runoff right past your place to the reef....it's unnatural I tell ya! hope anna does something about it soon, national parks need to get a fine to help save the reef.

cheers fnq

[disorderly]

yeah well keep it quiet Scott! The last thing the zealots want to hear is that you live right on the headwaters of a catchment with nothing above but virgin rainforest and have a creek that carries vast amounts of sediment and forest nutrient load runoff right past your place to the reef....it's unnatural I tell ya! hope anna does something about it soon, national parks need to get a fine to help save the reef.

cheers fnq

Scott,It's quite interesting working and owning a property that adjoins national park in the wet tropics....considering that we also lease a 600 metre long access track along a creek into some steep rainforest gorge country (leased from National parks)... to maintain our gravity feed irrigation and water supply ...one of the creeks flows past no more than 10 metres from our verandah...we have a birds eye view so to speak..

Its been a real eye opener over the last 10 years, (and in particular the last 3 since the forests here were flattened by cyclone Larry)that has all but dispelled the myth(to me anyway) that native forest is any better than well managed agricultural land in terms of creating sedimentation and possibly as you suggest also in terms of the nutrient load runoff...

So please dont get me started...'cause then we also have to talk about the feral animals and noxious weeds that are knowingly and very successfully bred by National parks and wildlife..at least they can do something well..;)::)

Scott