Toxic ‘sea foam' kills animals and leaves surfers with breathing problems and blurred vision
A toxic 'sea foam' on a South Australian beach has killed scores of animals and caused several surfers to experience breathing issues and blurred vision, said local health authorities.
Popular surf spots Waitpinga and neighbouring Parsons beach, some 80km south of Adelaide, were closed on Monday, the Department for Environment and Water said in a statement.
The yellowish foam spanning hundreds of metres is likely to be a microalgal bloom, a toxin-producing algae, fuelled by a recent extended period of hot and dry temperatures with little wind and low tides, they added.
Surfers reported experiencing blurred vision, itchy eyes, coughing and breathing difficulties after contact with the water.
Anthony Rowland said he became 'really raspy' after swimming in the water over the weekend. 'It was sort of like when you inhale a potent cleaning product, if you're cleaning a kitchen sink or something. It hit the back of my throat,' he said.
Mr Rowland described the residue as 'a really heavy, dense, yellow foam, with a fair bit of green, slimy, scummy stuff.'
'It is very concerning,' said South Australian Environment Protection Authority principal scientific officer, Sam Gaylard.
'It is unusual at this scale. At this time of year, when the weather conditions allow, we do occasionally get isolated blooms, but something of this scale is definitely a little bit unusual.'
A state environment department spokesperson said the beaches had been closed 'in response to a fish mortality event in the area.'
Pictures posted on social media showed dozens of dead octopus, sea dragons and fish washed up on the beaches.
Mr Gaylard said they were 'not sure how long this will last', saying there's a risk a small ocean swell starting on Sunday could generate more foam.
'We think that it is probably an irritant, so a phytoplankton with some spiky structure to it but we really want to identify what the species is to confirm that,' he added.
Mr Gaylard said that marine scientists took water samples from the foam on Monday, but it could take until the end of the week to identify the organism.
South Australia Health said there have been no reported hospitalisations linked to the incident.
The region has been experiencing drought conditions, with temperatures reaching a high of 39 degrees over the weekend.
Blooms of toxic algae occur around the world and can cause mass mortality of aquatic species, especially fish and shellfish.
The toxins can also affect water quality by blocking sunlight and depleting oxygen levels.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
NHS provides wonderful treatment. Increase taxes and fund it properly
This has returned me to a functioning state only requiring continuous supervision; I can only guess at the cost of the chemotherapy, the 22 units of blood I've received, the constant blood tests and the care. Herein lies the problem for the NHS; when I was a medical student all those years ago acute myeloid leukaemia was fatal within a very short timescale. However, thanks to all the wonderful treatment I am still here and am now on a number of NHS waiting lists. My ageing prostate requires investigation and treatment; my routine "free" eye test revealed a cataract, so onto another waiting list; the haematologists put me onto a chiropody waiting list because of the risk of infections; breathlessness needs to be checked out by a cardiologist. So that is four waiting lists I'm contributing to as well as my "routine" haematology appointments. As an addendum I had a marvellous experience with a knee replacement at the Inverness National Treatment Centre two years ago. It is not the NHS that is failing but the huge increase in demand as old c like me are given wonderful treatment. Finish building the National Treatment Centres, increase my taxes and fund the NHS properly. A friend, who recently had an operation, said to me: "I never believed in angels until I had my knee replaced; now I know they all work in the NHS." I can't stress enough how lucky we are to have our Health Service. Iain McNicol, Port Appin. Read more letters Dear Glasgow: think smaller Glasgow is the Dear Green Place – a city of science and invention, of strength, music, humour, class, and difference. It has given the world steam power, radical thinkers, antiseptic surgery, art movements and fierce working-class and community solidarity. So how has Glasgow ended up imagining an urban future as one of lookalike towers in glass and concrete ("Change to Glasgow skyline on horizon as tall buildings policy agreed", The Herald, June 4)? The city council's new Tall Buildings Design Guide may offer developers clarity, but it offers the public little vision. These towers will be high enough to disrupt the best of what Glasgow has built – its tenements, its laneways, its layered civic history – but not high enough to create something distinctively new or transformative. Not radical. Just rentable. We've seen this elsewhere. In Adelaide, Australia, where I live, one of the world's best low-rise, planned cities is now facing a proposal for its tallest-ever skyscraper: a 160-metre commercial tower to be erected next to the modest but magnificent 30-metre South Australian Parliament. That building is where, in 1894, full women's suffrage was first legislated. Now it risks being cast into permanent shadow. The lesson is this: once the high-rise model takes hold, private developers will not stop. Height becomes ambition. Overshadowing becomes inevitable. Distinctiveness is lost, and sameness rises in its place. Glasgow still has a choice. It can honour its green character, its historical depth, and its civic soul. It can grow with distinction, not duplication. Capture of government by property developer interests becomes normalised. Let Glasgow not be remembered as the city that forgot who it was in the race to be what others already are. Stewart Sweeney, Adelaide, South Australia. Lynx are not a danger to humans Wild animals they may be but lynx were killed off by man armed with nothing more sophisticated than sticks, spears and arrows; the bulk of their extinction may be down to habitat destruction, which only needed the ability to light fires and use an axe. These animals are to be pitied, not feared. Malcolm Parkin (Letters, June 5) is indulging in solipsism much as those influenced by the book and films of Jaws falsely labelled sharks as malevolent killers rather than relatively harmless apex predators that humans would do well to give a wide berth to. In the wild lynx and wolf avoid contact with humans; we should return the favour if they are ever reintroduced to Scotland. The main hazards in the US are hunters with maybe bears a distant second, as Tom Lehrer sang: "People ask me how I do it And I say, "There's nothin' to it You just stand there lookin' cute And when something moves, you shoot!" And there's 10 stuffed heads in my trophy room right now, Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a pure-bred Guernsey cow." David Bradshaw, Kilcreggan. Should the lynx be reintroduced to Scotland? (Image: Getty) First off the tee Kristy Dorsey writes well about The Golf Lounge ("Behind the scenes at Scotland's original indoor golfing facility", The Herald, June 6). Whether it is Scotland's first indoor golf facility is, however, open to doubt. Sixty and more years ago, Lumley's in Sauchiehall Street employed Bill Jessiman, a well-known professional, who was available for tuition in the Golf department, pupils hitting balls into nets. I also recall, perhaps about that time, using a golf simulator in the old Central Hotel in Glasgow. That facility was short-lived. Why is there always such a desire to be first? David Miller, Milngavie. Below the belt Recently some readers have complained about the inappropriate timing of television adverts for bowel medication and incontinence products being shown around teatime. The latest adverts for 'Low Body Spray' are really offensive. It seems anything goes these days. Eric Macdonald, Paisley. A matter of priorities Well said Stuart Neville (Letters, June 5) regarding tourist buses in Glasgow. Mazing my way through all the city centre road closures today, it struck me that while there seems to be plenty of money to spend on projects which are not much liked by Glaswegians there seems to be none available for those such as The People's Palace which we really love. Dave Henderson, Glasgow.
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- The Guardian
Hot weekend for south-east Australia, with Melbourne to get warmest April day in four years
South-east Australia is in for a hot weekend, with temperatures up to 12C above average forecast in parts of Victoria and Melbourne expected to experience its warmest April days in four years. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast Melbourne will reach a maximum of 30C on Saturday and Sunday, while Sydney is forecast to reach a high of 26C on both days of the weekend. Senior BoM meteorologist Dean Narramore said Melbourne will experience its warmest April day in four years this weekend. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Narramore said that the unusually warm weather for the weekend is due to a very large and slow-moving high-pressure system moving over south-eastern Australia and extending well into the Tasman Sea. 'Because of the high-pressure system it's going to direct northerly winds into south-eastern Australia for multiple days through this weekend and well into next week,' he said. Narramore said that this weekend's weather forecast is not record-breaking, but is definitely unusual weather. Senior BoM meteorologist Christie Johnson said Adelaide is expected to have a run of five days of 30C and above starting on Saturday. The warm temperatures come as Australia recently experienced its hottest 12-month period on record, ending with its hottest March on record. Dr Andrew King, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne, told Guardian Australia earlier in April that the 12-month record had been broken by a significant margin. 'We are warming the planet at a significant rate now and we continue to put record amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere,' he said. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Johnson said that there is fire danger predicted across a number of South Australian districts over the weekend, and into parts of Victoria on Sunday. According to the BoM, Western Australia will experience a heat trough on Friday that starts to build with some late showers and storms pushing into the far south-west. Perth was forecast to reach 26C on Saturday, while Hobart may reach 22C. 'Even as we move into early next week we will see the heat continue through parts of South Australia, Victoria and southern New South Wales,' said Narramore. 'We can expect the warm weather until at least Wednesday and possibly even until Thursday next week before we see some cooler air return just in time for Easter'.
The Guardian
01-04-2025
- The Guardian
One Australian's dramatic rescue from a flood in of one of the driest places on Earth
Many are those rescued from Munga-Thirri-Simpson Desert – in what is normally the dust bowl of outback Queensland – who have sunk wheels in a sand dune, busted tyres upon gibber rock or even been bogged in the mud left by a sudden downpour. But Tony Woolford is among a far more exclusive club. In fact, the 66-year-old South Australian may well be the first person ever plucked by helicopter in this, one of the driest places on Earth, from flood waters. At least, that is according to the man who coordinated his rescue, Don Rowlands. A lifelong resident of Birdsville – the iconic gateway town to the Simpson – Rowlands has seen 'stacks' of rescues in Queensland's outback south-west over his 31 years as a desert ranger. 'A lot of them having troubles now when these new fang-dangled computers throw in the towel,' the 76-year-old Wangkangurru Yarluyandi elder says. 'Computers in the cars, you know, just some little thing goes wrong and you can't get them to go again. 'But anyone rescued from floods in the desert … no, not that I can recall. 'I think this is the first you know?' It certainly won't be an experience Woolford will forget in a hurry. When heavy rain turned the Madigan Line track he was driving to mud, Woolford was stranded in his 4WD for five days, watching the rising flood waters come to within a metre of his refuge before he was airlifted to safety. 'I thought I would float away,' he told the national broadcaster after his rescue last week. Had he done so, perhaps he would have ended up in Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. With vast swathes of outback Queensland inundated and many places receiving more than a year's worth of rain in a matter of days, flood waters are gradually making their way to the lowest place in Australia – that arid salt pan is set to transform into ephemeral lake. As those flows pass towns and cattle and sheep stations – normally isolated by desert, plain and sheer distance – many sit as islands in a muddy sea. Birdsville has been cut off for more than a week, Rowlands said, and on Tuesday, the town was preparing for flood waters to rise once more as the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Dianne wash into Queensland from the west. But 'no one is complaining', he said. Food was being flown in weekly from Boulia, almost 400 kilometres to the north. The town's iconic pub was not going to run out of beer – they have their own plane. The situation for others was more dire. At least one dad did a school run to the town of Jundah, more than 450km to the east of Birdsville, in a tinnie last week. Days later, at least 25 people were airlifted from the town in helicopters as the Thomson River burst its banks. Adavale, about 195km further to south-east was also evacuated. Mayor of the neighbouring Longreach shire, Tony Rayner, said his council was providing refuge for those who fled Jundah – while make their own flood preparations. 'The situation there is really unprecedented, and we've been helping as much as we can to receive evacuees and assist with resupply,' he said. 'There's a lot of water up there'. Rayner said the full effects of the flood would not be known for weeks. But early estimates from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI) were already pointing to potentially devastating loss of cattle and sheep. The DPI said that estimates from Monday afternoon indicated more than 105,000 livestock were missing or dead – and that figure was set to rise. Rayner said 'significant stock losses for western Queensland' would 'have an impact on every community out here'. 'Not only economically, but psychosocially – we're already getting reports of landholders that are struggling mentally with the prospect of what they know is to come,' he said. 'The trauma isn't just damage to homes and possessions – it's losing beloved animals, generations of blood lines, and in some cases faithful companions.' A clearer picture may begin to emerge later this week, according to Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology. The senior meteorologist said the rain was continuing to fall in many places on Tuesday, prolonging a weather event that officially began on 23 March as an inland low that dragged monsoonal rain from the tropical north to the arid south, but has been complicated by the likes of Dianne. 'From the 23rd onwards we've seen huge amounts of rain falling across western and inland Queensland,' Bradbury said. 'Across some parts of southern and south west Queensland, several locations have exceeded their annual average rainfall in just a three-day period.' The meteorologists said most areas under flood warnings should see widespread clearing of skies by Thursday, but that forecasting the rain had been made 'so challenging' by 'one rainfall event flowing into the next'. 'For places around Birdsville those rivers are still rising … and have actually seen multiple flood peaks move through,' she said. 'It rises, it comes down a little, and then it rises again as that next bout of rain moves through the catchment. 'That's certainly caused massive and long lasting disruption'. While the channel country of the outback south west was used to periodic flooding, Bradbury said such a 'huge amount of rain' over a period of days 'sets this apart from other events'. 'That's what is going to make it remembered very distinctly,' she said. But amid the challenges and the loss, Rowlands said the normally dusty flood plains around his home town were already lush and green and 'pretty magic'. And when the waters do recede, he expects these landscapes, normally among the harshest in the world, to explode with life. 'Mate the country will be like a garden,' he said. 'It'll be a sea of flowers'.
