{"id":9241,"date":"2015-06-19T06:39:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-19T11:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9241"},"modified":"2015-06-19T06:39:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T11:39:59","slug":"toxic-algae-blooms-what-you-should-know-about-the-mysterious-phenomena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9241","title":{"rendered":"Toxic algae blooms: What you should know about the mysterious phenomena"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"story-headline\">\n<h3 class=\"story-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/technology\/toxic-algae-blooms-what-you-should-know-about-the-mysterious-phenomena-1.3117687\" target=\"_blank\">Toxic algae blooms: What you should know about the mysterious phenomena<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"story-deck\"><strong>Algae can produce some of the most harmful natural toxins known to science<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In August\u00a01961, a bizarre scene unfolded in the skies above the coastal town of Capitola, Calif.,\u00a0on the northern end of\u00a0Monterey Bay.<\/p>\n<p>Residents watched in terror as seabirds\u00a0dive-bombed into the ground at kamikaze speed and\u00a0violently\u00a0vomited\u00a0fish. The carcasses of hundreds of birds were strewn\u00a0in the streets.<\/p>\n<p>The strange\u00a0incident\u00a0partly inspired Alfred Hitchcock&#8217;s\u00a01963 horror flick\u00a0<em>The Birds<\/em>, but exactly what happened\u00a0remained a mystery\u00a0for five decades.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/toxic-algae-bloom-off-west-coast-might-be-largest-ever-1.3116914\">Toxic algae bloom off West Coast might be largest ever<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/technology\/lake-erie-s-algae-explosion-blamed-on-farmers-1.2729327\">Lake Erie&#8217;s algae explosion blamed on farmers<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In 2011, a research group revealed that the birds were victims of poisoning by domoic acid, a potent toxin produced by algae that targets the nervous system, inducing severe seizures and killing wildlife.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/toxic-algae-bloom-off-west-coast-might-be-largest-ever-1.3116914\">A bloom thought to be the largest ever<\/a>\u00a0observed\u00a0on the West Coast of North America is currently menacing Monterey Bay with unprecedented levels of domoic acid. Wild and farmed shellfish operations from California to B.C.\u00a0have been forced to stop harvesting until the bloom clears.<\/p>\n<p>While toxic algae are common in waters across the planet,\u00a0there is mounting evidence that the\u00a0frequency and severity of these events are on the rise and that global climate change may exacerbate\u00a0the problem.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some important background on toxic algal blooms and how they could affect you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>What are toxic algal blooms?<\/h2>\n<p>The massive growth of\u00a0algae\u00a0on the West Coast falls under a category of natural phenomena that scientists call harmful algal blooms, or\u00a0HABs. They are often\u00a0called red tides because they sometimes render the water a rusty-crimson colour. This is a misnomer, however,\u00a0as\u00a0algal blooms can be many colours and aren&#8217;t necessarily connected to tides.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toxic algae blooms: What you should know about the mysterious phenomena Algae can produce some of the most harmful natural toxins known to science In August\u00a01961, a bizarre scene unfolded in the skies above the coastal town of Capitola, Calif.,\u00a0on the northern end of\u00a0Monterey Bay. Residents watched in terror as seabirds\u00a0dive-bombed into the ground at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3544,3000,141,299,6520,6521,6522,6519],"class_list":["post-9241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-cbc","tag-cbc-news","tag-climate-change","tag-farming","tag-lake-erie","tag-phosphates","tag-toxic-algae","tag-toxic-algae-blooms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9242,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions\/9242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}