Yellow Sludge Lines

The local experts say the sludge is Tetraselmis, a microscopic algae. Nothing more about it was said in the press other than it won’t hurt anyone,
which is usually what most humans require knowing before continuing to ignore an environmental change.

I looked it up online, and according to Reed Mariculture:
Tetraselmis is a large green flagellate with a very high lipid level. It also contains natural amino acids that stimulate feeding
in marine animals. It is an excellent feed for larval shrimp.

The site also recommended it for feeding shellfish and fin fish–in the process of feeding rotifers, which then are fed to the fry.

Seeing as we have both fish and shellfish hatcheries in one of our local lagoons, I wonder if the tetraselmis isn’t being washed out to sea with the filtration systems at the hatcheries. However, the stuff has been reported as being a far north as Long Beach–before it was reported here. Don’t know if there are hatcheries up there or not. The algae are marketed to the aquarium industry, also, so maybe there are individuals or businesses or commercial aquariums dumping it in the ocean, and have been over the years–but current conditions allow it to flourish to the point where we notice.