Latest news with #algalbloom
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- Science
- The Guardian
Fears for South Australia's annual cuttlefish gathering amid deadly algal bloom
As thousands of giant cuttlefish gather in South Australia's Spencer Gulf, scientists are investigating emergency actions amid fears the state's toxic algal bloom could be catastrophic for the globally unique natural phenomenon. The spectacular annual cephalopod meet-up takes place in a kaleidoscope of colour off the coast of Whyalla from late May to August, attracting thousands of tourists from Australia and overseas. But this year scientists have sounded the alarm as the event – known to locals as Cuttlefest – coincides with the spread of deadly algae into the Spencer Gulf. Dr Zoe Doubleday, a marine ecologist at the University of South Australia, said the phenomenon was unique in that 'it's the only population of giant Australian cuttlefish – and only population of cuttlefish worldwide – that comes together and breeds in their tens of thousands and forms this spectacular natural wonder'. Doubleday said the short lives of the cuttlefish, and lack of generational overlap, made the Spencer Gulf population particularly vulnerable to the harmful bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae, which has devastated marine life along the state's coastline since March. Sign up: AU Breaking News email In an emergency meeting convened by the state government on Wednesday, scientists and marine managers agreed to investigate safeguards in the event of the bloom being detected in waters off Point Lowly, where the cuttlefish gather annually. Options included looking at the feasibility of collecting an insurance population of cuttlefish eggs, something that had never been tried before. 'If it did reach the breeding aggregation, there's a good chance it could just wipe all the eggs out,' Doubleday said. 'When mum and dad die, you've just got the offspring left. If all the eggs are wiped out in the bloom – and we've seen how lethal this bloom can be – then there's no generation … left to replenish or repopulate the population.' Stefan Andrews, marine scientist at the Great Southern Reef Foundation, said if that occurred it would be 'catastrophic'. Thousands of giant cuttlefish, some measuring up to 50cm, had already arrived 'right on cue' to mate and lay eggs at the national heritage-listed Cuttlefish Coast Sanctuary Zone – about 63km south of Port Augusta and 15km north-east of Whyalla – according to Andrews, who has spent hundreds of hours underwater observing the cuttlefish breeding events over the last 15 years. 'You can have tens of thousands of cuttlefish all within a pretty small area,' he said. There's some really fantastic egg-laying habitat there. It's this rocky reef that's got all the seaweeds over it. And they lay the eggs on the underside of what they call dens – little caves or rocky outcrops.' While scientists are holding out hope that cold water temperatures and high salinity in the upper Spencer Gulf would act as a buffer against the worst of the bloom, the state government is monitoring the situation closely and developing contingency plans. South Australia's environment minister, Dr Susan Close, said 'while early indications have not shown impacts of the algal bloom on the cuttlefish population, the government will continue to monitor satellite imagery and survey the cuttlefish coast'.
ABC News
8 hours ago
- Business
- ABC News
SA seafood still safe for purchase during algal bloom, producers say
South Australian seafood producers in areas not impacted by the algal bloom are calling on customers to keep supporting the local industry. The widespread harmful algal bloom in Gulf St Vincent and parts of the Spencer Gulf is having a major effect on fishing industries in some of those areas. To the south-east, along the Limestone Coast, waters have not been affected by the bloom, but there are concerns about how it may impact the state's reputation and sales. "Ninety per cent of what we do down here is exported internationally, and it's sourced from an area that's not affected by the algal bloom," said Tom Ryan, who works in the seafood industry at Port MacDonnell. "But in Adelaide I have heard of people that have been affected because there's been misinterpretations of where the seafood's sourced. "There's been people where their business and turnover has slowed down because people assume the seafood comes from affected areas, when in fact it's actually come from areas that haven't been impacted whatsoever. On the Limestone Coast, the lucrative rock lobster industry has just emerged from a difficult period due to COVID and a ban on exports to China. Andrew Lawrie has been exporting lobsters from Robe since 1997, and said the past few years had been fairly trying. "The domestic market's been really good," he said. "They've supported industry through the three or four years we could not export." With the lobster industry currently in its off season, Mr Lawrie said he hoped the state government could "get it under control before it spreads too far" towards the south east. "Our industry with the lobsters is substantial – we can't afford to risk that," he said. "The tuna industry would be very concerned, but hopefully they're almost through their harvesting now, so then they can change their strategies if it does move in. Depending on where and how severely the bloom impacts other parts of the state, however, economic losses could be high. BDO economist Anders Magnusson said in certain parts of SA, lost production could cost millions. "The production [of seafood in SA] is close to $500 million," he said. "Definitely there are locations where if they're affected there's tens of millions of dollars to be lost." As part of a $28 million support package from the state and federal governments, grants of up to $100,000 for affected commercial fisheries and licence holders have been made available. SA Environment and Water Minister Susan Close said it was important to get the message out that seafood from South Australia was safe to consume. "In fact if you wanted to help people through this bloom, go holiday by the coast and buy seafood that is South Australian," she said. "That's the best thing you can do."
ABC News
19 hours ago
- Science
- ABC News
Race to understand Giant Australian cuttlefish behaviour as algal bloom looms
Thousands of people visit Whyalla every year in winter to see congregating giant Australian cuttlefish near the shore for their breeding season. But that may be under threat as scientists weigh-up whether to relocate cuttlefish hatchlings before South Australia's toxic algal bloom reaches their fertile grounds. The Biodiversity Council of Australia held an emergency meeting on Wednesday with state government officials discussing how to safeguard giant Australian cuttlefish eggs in the Upper Spencer Gulf. UniSA marine ecologist Zoe Doubleday attended the meeting and said the council had resolved to fill data gaps before taking a course of action. "You'd be taking eggs from a currently healthy population so you don't want to do that unless you really have to," Dr Doubleday said. "And removing eggs, they might just be gobbled up by predators after a while, so there's a few things we're balancing. We're doing some assessment to see what's viable." Dr Doubleday acknowledged the process was time sensitive but it was unclear how much of the algae would reach breeding areas, nor how much harm could be done. "The eggs are in a good place to collect now if we were to do that, or in the next few weeks," she said. Biodiversity Council spokesperson Jaana Dielenberg said the cuttlefish were "a point of pride for the people of Whyalla" and an international tourism drawcard. "Our greatest hope is that the harmful algal bloom, which is devastating marine wildlife, will dissipate soon," she said. "But until it does conservation managers need to rapidly prepare for the worst. "This cuttlefish population and its extraordinary behaviour are one of the world's natural wonders, like the great monarch butterfly migrations. "We should do everything we can to ensure it survives." Flinders University cuttlefish researcher Bethany Jackel, who was not at the meeting, said giant Australian cuttlefish numbers were strong this season. "The cuttlefish this season do seem to have dodged a bullet. They seem to have done what they need to do," Ms Jackel said. "What we don't really know is what impact that algae may have on the eggs that will now be developing all the way through until November, December, and what effects that algae might have on the food source of the hatchlings." Whyalla Dive Shop owner Manny Katz, who is also director of Eyre Lab, a not-for-profit which promotes awareness of restoration ecology, approved of moving the eggs. "Then we can hold on to those genetics for redeployment in the future," he said. Due to their relatively short life span of 12 to 18 months, Mr Katz said it could take several generations of captive cuttlefish before conditions were optimal for their release back into the wild. "If you were to release hatchlings back into the wild with no food source you'd just be setting them up for failure," he said. Cutty's Boat Tours owner Matt Waller, one of several tourism operators who rely on the cuttlefish aggregation, said there were still unknowns. "The question we can never really answer is [why are] the cuttlefish returning to this site every year? Is that a high level of genetic evolutionary disposition? Or it's something they just re-find?" he said. Mr Katz said more research was being conducted into the species' migration patterns. But it was unclear was whether a prolonged period of captivity would impact their "internal compass" and ability to travel to the breeding grounds outside of Point Lowley.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Climate
- ABC News
SA Algal Bloom
Despite rain and cooler weather, an algal bloom off the coast of Adelaide is continuing to affect ocean life and the people who love it or rely on it for a living. Justina finds out more about this natural disaster and why it has a lot of people worried. Do you have any questions about algal blooms? Well send them in, and Justina will answer as many as possible.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
As South Australia deals with its algal bloom, California is dealing with another
A dead sea lion is discovered on one end of the coast, and not far away an entire pod of long-beaked common dolphins lay stranded. It is becoming a familiar scene for those living along the coast of Southern California. And much like in South Australia, where thousands of dead sea creatures have washed ashore since March, a harmful algal bloom is to blame. Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find distressing. In California, this is the fourth consecutive year of death and destruction along the coastline. There have been scores of marine mammals and sea birds injured and killed, with US rescuers dealing with "by far historically the largest mass stranding event" relating to algal blooms. In South Australia, the Karenia mikimotoi bloom, kills fish and other sea creatures by impacting their gills, causing them to drown. In the US, authorities have been dealing with different types of algae, including one that produces domoic acid which can cause mammals like sea lions to experience seizures, behave aggressively or die. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) said the harmful algal bloom on the Southern California coast had significantly impacted sea lion and common dolphin populations and had killed two humpback whales and a minke whale. "In 2025, we've experienced the worst domoic acid algae bloom that we've ever experienced in Southern California history," Alissa Deming, PMMC vice president of Conservation, Medicine and Science told ABC News. Dr Deming said the PMMC hospital had taken in hundreds of sick mammals, which had been "physically demanding and very emotionally taxing" on staff and volunteers trying to help while protecting the public from aggressive animals. "A number of the sea lions were also pregnant, and that resulted in reproductive losses of over 85 fetuses born and lost in our hospital as a result of this bloom," she said. The veterinarian said there were likely similar drivers for its bloom to the one happening in South Australia including increasing marine temperatures and more nutrients from cold water upwelling. "By combining the warm sea surface temperatures with increased nutrients, that has resulted in us having a bloom event every year since 2022, with them seemingly becoming larger, longer lasting and covering a lot larger geographic region," Dr Deming said. Investigations are underway if the destructive Los Angeles wildfires in January and the associated run-off have contributed to the bloom. The US National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms said a conservative estimated cost of harmful algal blooms for the the US was about $50 million, but experts say expenses are hard to quantify. A 2024 study estimated losses to tourism-related businesses during the 2018 Florida red tide bloom at $US2.7 billion. Dr Deming said the US government agencies continued to have monitoring and management practices in place to support the commercial seafood industry. "Being able to have good federal and state agencies that can do surveillance to test to ensure seafood is safe for the public, as well as trying to come up with preventative measures or best management practices to prevent blooms, … are really high priority items," she said. "We're happy we have some of those systems in place, but there's absolutely room for improvement I think all around the world to help prevent the conditions that support these really long lasting and devastating blooms." Other algal blooms have also wreaked havoc in other parts of the world. An algae surge choked to death an estimated 40,000 tonnes of salmon in Chile in 2016 while hundreds of elephant deaths in Botswana in 2020 were linked to cyanobacteria, often called blue-green algae in Australia. The scale of each harmful algal bloom event seems to be increasing, professor Gretta Pecl from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies told the ABC. "If there isn't something done to mitigate, to reduce climate emissions, warming will continue and these kinds of events will be more and more likely," she said. US research biologist at NOAA Fisheries Kathi Lefebvre, who has been studying harmful algal blooms for 25 years, said the blooms were getting worse and reaching areas "where we used to not have problems". "It is turning out to be a major impact of climate change." Authorities in South Australia have linked South Australia's algal bloom to climate change, and state and federal governments have pledged a collective $28 million for a suite of measures to tackle the algal bloom, including more funding for testing. Dr Lefebvre said authorities needed to take action now to mitigate the effects of future blooms. "What's going to happen if these blooms are going to be continuing is that there's going to need to be ways to test for toxins … to protect human health," Dr Lefebvre said. "The more information we have, the better decisions we can make.
