2023 SF Bay Harmful Aglae Bloom

It is with great sadness that I'm asking your to join this project
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sf-bay-harmful-algae-bloom-2023
in preparation for another potentially high mortality event in the SF Bay caused by a Heterosigma bloom.

CDFW's Dr. Karen Odkins is the manager of the project and is asking that when you join you do so letting project admin see coordinates for sensitive organisms that are usually obscured as it will make tracking sturgeon mortality more streamlined. Also please mark your organisms as "dead" as this is one of the factors being used to pull observations into the project.

The Heterosigma tide is already hitting Berkeley's shoreline and there are dead fish already in the project from Emeryville.
https://oaklandside.org/2023/08/01/algae-bloom-that-caused-lake-merritt-fish-kill-is-spotted-along-east-bay-shoreline/

@merav
@damontighe
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Posted on August 2, 2023 05:15 PM by damontighe damontighe

Comments

Thank you for setting up this valuable project. I think it is important to note that we do not know what caused the deaths of organisms found in the area of this project and that there are many possible causes. Specific HAB bloom reports must be considered tentative until verified by qualified scientific observers. I look forward to that happening and applaud iNaturalist, Damon and Dr. Odkins for making it easy for community observers to record and collect their observations.

Posted by ktnoon 9 months ago

Thank you for letting us know! I wasn't planning to revisit the site, but I won't turn down an excuse to go.

Posted by levinletlive 9 months ago

Thanks for setting this up and letting us know. I’ll be down in the Bay Area in several days and will go visit the shorelines and Lake. Hopefully this is nothing like last year.

Posted by rockpaperstar11 9 months ago

I appreciate the notice. I will certainly try to contribute as soon as I am able.

Posted by geodani 9 months ago

thanks so much for organizing! i'll be mainly active in the East Bay area between Albany and Emeryville

Posted by jfmclaughlin92 9 months ago

Thank you Damon!

Posted by artmouse 9 months ago
Posted by burtosa 9 months ago

Thanks for this update! I’ll keep a lookout when I’m on my walks around the marinas. I hope that it won’t be as bad as the last bloom!

Posted by belaoakland 9 months ago

Thank you to many of you that have contributed surveying the shorelines. Based upon microscopy from many sites around the east bay I think the bloom may not be growing as rapidly as last year. I know that CDFW has already found this observations useful, so thank you for all of your efforts and hopefully we don't see this bloom get to the size of 2022 which peaked ~ 8/22-26

Posted by damontighe 9 months ago

Thanks for tagging me, @damontighe. Should I try surveying some south bay points? or is it mostly around the northern part of the bay for now?

Posted by merav 9 months ago

@merav - it looks like the bloom has past at this point, so no more surveying is needed at this time. The SFEI satellite imaging tool for Chlorophyll has tracked really well: when i see large red zones it seems that when we see dead fish. The last bloom emerged over a 4 day period, culminating around July 30th and with dead fish showing up 2-3 days later.
https://fhab.sfei.org/?p=chlorophyll&c=max1day&d=20230809#

Posted by damontighe 9 months ago

Thanks, @damontighe. I'm glad to hear it's gone for now. I'll join the surveys on the next one...

Posted by merav 9 months ago

I just posted two very healthy bat rays at the entrance to the channel at 8th St.bridge , so positive signs of recovery.

Posted by rauzon 8 months ago

Awesome!

Posted by ktnoon 8 months ago

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