You remember the thousands of fish, including green and white sturgeon, striped bass, gobies and leopard sharks, that perished in San Francisco Bay last year due to a red tide algae bloom?
Environmentalists and government agencies yesterday revealed that another harmful algae bloom is taking place in sections of the bay this year. However, there have no been reports of dead fish or marine organisms at this time.
San Francisco Baykeeper's field science team investigated reports to the organization's pollution hotline and confirmed reddish brown (“tea colored”) waters in the Berkeley marina, and subsequently along the shores of Emeryville, Berkeley, and Albany, according to a press statement from the group.
“We’re carefully monitoring and tracking the bloom because we know the horrible effects that last year’s algae bloom had on marine life,” Eileen White, executive officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, told reporters in a press conference on Monday afternoon announcing the bloom.
”We have confirmed with our partners that it’s the same species as last year,” said White, referring to the Heterosigma akashiwo algae. “The good news is we have not seen any marine animal deaths as a result of this algae bloom.”
In 2023, a harmful bloom of the same algae caused a red tide that spread across the Bay, from northern San Pablo Bay to the southern reaches of San Francisco Bay, resulting in an unprecedented fish kill event, the San Francisco Baykeeper noted.
“It’s alarming to see an algae outbreak of this size in the Bay for the second year in a row," said Baykeeper science director Jon Rosenfield, PhD. "While it’s too early to tell how this harmful algae bloom will proceed, there’s not much that we can do to stop it once it has started. Prevention is the only cure."
Algae blooms are fueled by elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, also called “nutrient pollution,” said Rosenfield.
“San Francisco Bay has some of the highest levels of nutrient pollution of any estuary in the world. This pollution comes primarily from the region’s 37 wastewater treatment plants, which discharge partially treated sewage into the Bay,” he stated.
“The good news is we know how to reduce the nutrient pollution that fuels harmful algal blooms, and many of these solutions have multiple benefits," Rosenfield added. "We urge the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to upgrade permits for Bay Area wastewater treatment facilities to dramatically reduce nutrient loads discharged into the Bay, and to encourage nature-based and other multi-benefit solutions."
Rosenfield said wastewater treatment plants can be modernized to recycle wastewater, reducing nitrogen and phosphorus discharges in the process. Building treatment wetlands would capture sewage pollution before it enters the Bay. Restoring the Bay’s historic natural wetlands would absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorus from Bay waters.
Baykeeper is investigating this algae bloom and its causes in partnership with the San Francisco Estuary Institute, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other agencies and academic organizations. Baykeeper asks anyone who encounters water that looks or smells suspicious to report it to its pollution hotline.
Rosenfield added that the organism that forms this bloom is not known to pose a risk to humans. Regardless, Baykeeper advises caution when entering any water that is discolored.
The latest harmful algae bloom is part of a much bigger problem — the regional, state and federal government water policies that imperil endangered fish in San Francisco Bay, the Delta and Central Valley rivers. In a press conference and rally by Tribes and environmental groups at the State Capitol on July 5, Rosenfield emphasized that the Newsom administration’s water policies “threaten to make California the global leader in fish extinctions. “
“San Francisco Bay’s six endangered fish species demonstrate that the state’s water quality rules are woefully inadequate,” Rosenfield stated. “Repeatedly waiving even inadequate standards has led to the complete closure of California’s salmon fishing season.”
“Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that declining fish populations are driven by unsustainable water diversions, the Newsom administration has taken every opportunity to increase water diversions by powerful corporate agribusinesses and urban water brokers. California must align its water demand with what nature provides, or species that have survived here for millennia will not survive the coming decade,” he concluded.