Glowing surf turns into rotten stench on California coast. ‘It makes it very stinky’
Californians couldn’t get enough of glowing waves crashing along the coasts, but now they have to deal with a horrible smell coming from the waters.
People from San Diego to Los Angeles are complaining of an awful stench near the ocean and in coastal communities, news outlets report. The smell is a result of the glow-in-the-dark bioluminescent waves that lit up waters over the past month.
The glowing water was caused by a red tide, which is a “massive bloom of the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedra, which is a common member of the local plankton community,” the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego said on its website.
The bioluminescence calmed down at the beginning of May, with not much to see, according to the Scripps Institution. As the red tide continues, however, the water can turn dark brown and organic material starts to break down, the institution said.
That breakdown can create an intense, nasty smell like sulfur and can be smelled miles away, according to the Scripps Institution.
“The smell is because the red tide is breaking down,” Michael Latz, a biologist with Scripps Institution, told the Los Angeles Times. “When it reaches its final phase, then it’s going to die off. The organisms, as they break open and die, they’re releasing organic material into the water. And also, there are bacteria that are feasting on that organic material, and they’re releasing odors. You put it all together and you have the breakdown of the red tide producing odors, and the bacteria producing odors, and it makes it very stinky.”
Scientists said Wednesday that they aren’t certain how long the red tide, and the smell that comes with it, will last, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
“We didn’t expect this bloom to go on for two months,” Clarissa Anderson, executive director of UCSD’s Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, told the Union-Tribune. “They’re usually much shorter, and there usually isn’t a mass die-off of fish.”
People have even caught a whiff of the smell while driving down Interstate 5 and in downtown San Diego, NBC San Diego reported.
“The water is still brown in color, but now the sulfury odor is intense; we smelled it 1 1/2 miles inland,” the Scripps Institution said on May 4. “There is also foam, indicating the breakdown of protein and other organic material. There are also reports of fish kills along beaches and in lagoons and harbors.”
So many people are smelling the dying cells that one gas company had to investigate the stench after receiving multiple complaints and concerns that the smell was gas-related, San Diego Gas & Electric said on Twitter.
“We received many calls from our customers who thought the smell near our coastal communities might be gas-related,” SDG&E tweeted. “After following up with all calls, the smell was determined to be given off by the #RedTide. But what a spectacular sight to witness!”
The Scripps Institution said “the end is near,” and there won’t be much bioluminescence to see or smell for long.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Glowing surf turns into rotten stench on California coast. ‘It makes it very stinky’."