Bribie slime weed

[alleycat]

Gday all im just wondering if anybody has any information on the slimey weed that has infested the bribie passage, its made fishing a nightmare, i spent 5 hours casting plastics today for 1 small flathead , fishing was tough and the weed looks like brown cotton wool in the water, ive never seen so much before and im wondering if anybody knows why it came and when it will clear out?.. cheers

[Slider]

Alleycat, the slimy weed (snot weed) you are talking about, is I believe a 'salp'. Salps are an animal that can bloom at remarkable rates when there is abundant phytoplankton for them to feed on. In the case of Bribie, the phytoplankton food source for the salps comes in the form of 'lingbya' and 'anaulus australis' algal blooms. Bribie has suffered from these blooms each summer since around 2000 and the salps are responding accordingly. This year, with the floods providing more nutrient than normal, the algaes have bloomed as expected with a worse than normal year for both algal and salp blooms. The salps are probably not a bad thing though, given the role they play in the marine environment, but not much fun to fish amongst.

For more info, Google 'salp' and Wikipedia provides a good description of the animal. And also on Google pg 1 is a CSIRO article on salps washing onto NSW beaches in 2008 - "Spring Bloom Brings Jelly Balls to NSW Coast".

[split-shot]

Had the same problem in Hay's inlet this weekend, I have never seen "snot weed" in there before. Any idea on how long it will hang around?

[Slider]

Can't imagine it hanging around very long as the salps would be dead. Probably as long as it takes for them to break down or be covered over with sediment. Along the beaches it's a matter of weeks at worst with each washed in bloom of salps.

[Funchy]

gday Alleycat,

if it's any consilation mate I threw SP's around for 5 hrs here on the other side of the world and did'nt get a tickle mate. Can't wait to get home and catch 1 small flatty!!! hahahahahah


Cheers mate

Funchy

[Funchy]

hey Slider, do you know if in times of increased slimy weed natural baits (like yabbies and sand/blood worms) are more effective?

[alleycat]

Hi funchy, my wife was baitm fishing and got nothing, her hook and gear were soon covered in slime while drifting, anchoring did same, just have to wait it out i guess..

[PADDLES]

it's in the caboolture river as well, thanks for the info and thread slider and alleycat, i was wondering what the stuff was too

[Funchy]

yeah mate sounds like ya can't win.


See if you can have it cleaned up by the time I get home can ya mate?
hahahahaha

Chhers

[mattyd]

I was in the passage for 5-6 hours Sat, and couldn't get away from the stuff. Buckley's wasn't as bad as white patch, until the run out tide brought all the weed flowing through past the southern point. 4 v. small diver whiting that we threw back was all we had to show for it. Even a full pack of live worms couldn't tempt them.

Sunday am at the cockle banks was way too rough - still a bit weedy out there but nothing like the passage. We joined about 20 boats taking shelter near D.bay and ended up with a good feed of ~ 40 ( 25 keepers incl a nice 45cm lizard!).

[Mike Delisser]

Alleycat, the slimy weed (snot weed) you are talking about, is I believe a 'salp'. Salps are an animal that can bloom at remarkable rates when there is abundant phytoplankton for them to feed on. In the case of Bribie, the phytoplankton food source for the salps comes in the form of 'lingbya' and 'anaulus australis' algal blooms. Bribie has suffered from these blooms each summer since around 2000 and the salps are responding accordingly. This year, with the floods providing more nutrient than normal, the algaes have bloomed as expected with a worse than normal year for both algal and salp blooms. The salps are probably not a bad thing though, given the role they play in the marine environment, but not much fun to fish amongst.

For more info, Google 'salp' and Wikipedia provides a good description of the animal. And also on Google pg 1 is a CSIRO article on salps washing onto NSW beaches in 2008 - "Spring Bloom Brings Jelly Balls to NSW Coast".

Hi Slider, I fish the Pumicestone Passage a fair bit and found it one of the worst places for this "brown snot weed". I'm wondering if this is the same stuff as the summer blooms you speak of as I've noticed it will only show up after several weeks of cold winter weather. Once the water temps start to warm in Aug it seems to die off, breaking down and sinking. The colder the water temps get the worse the blooms are, and if we get a mild, almost nonexistent winter like we had last year there will be virtually no bloom at all. Keen to hear your thoughts.
Cheers

[Slider]

Mike - is a different thing to the summer coastal algal blooms such as lingbya, hincksia and anaulus australis. The salp is an animal most closely resembling a vertebrate whereas the algaes are phytoplankton that photosynthesise like a plant.
The reason why we see the snot weed (dead salps) in winter is due to the fact that they are an ocean going animal that dies off when the algal blooms do with the onset of cooler weather. The salp's food source disappears and the salp bloom can't be sustained.
Tidal movement brings the dead salps inshore and into the estuaries and the Bribie Passage has a large opening to the south east which allows easier penetration of the dead salps than a river or creek and it becomes trapped there.

I don't believe that there is any direct correlation as you are suggesting between low air/water temps and an increase in snot weed - ie growing. Is more likely a coincidental scenario of cold temps means low rainfall and less flushing of the dead salp and/or the cold temps and clear days gets anglers out and about chasing bream, flathead and winter whiting in these types of locations and the snot weed is noticed more so. By August, there has been many months since the algal blooms disappearing and the salps dying and by which time they are breaking down and have lost bouyancy.

And just to clarify - I could be completely wrong about all of this as I haven't done any research as such and am merely having a fairly educated guess at how it works.

[cuzzamundi]

Yeah, it's all through Bramble Bay at the moment, too. Still a few fish around, so it doesn't seem to affect the life.

Slider, great info. Just wondering, does coral spawn (the brown sediment stuff you see on the surface around november) affect the oxygen levels in the water like Hincksia does? Always wondered if it has an affect on fish life and creates dead zones, or if it's just a visual annoyance. Thanks.

Cuzza

[Slider]

Cuzza, have to be a little careful with what is actually coral spawn and what is actually trichodesmium - which is an algae that looks a bit like coral spawn and is seen as 'rafts' of brown stuff on the ocean surface. Most people call these brown rafts that appear to be increasing in volume each year, coral spawn - which can only occur in November - but mostly what people are seeing is tricho which occurs generally between November and March/April and drifts south from the Barrier Reef with the northerly winds.
Neither of which causes any ill effects to marine life or humans as far as I'm aware. Marlin and spanish macs are actively targeted around the rafts of tricho and I've seen plenty of fish caught out of a brown (tricho) surf when the rafts wash into the surf zone with onshore breezes.
But hincksia, lingbya and anaulus australis all cause oxygen levels to be depleted and sometimes to an extent where fish can't survive in heavily algaed (eutrophic) zones. Was interesting this past summer that an anaulus australis bloom extended unbroken from at least Yeppoon to Ballina and nobody seemed to notice. I am still seeing signs of it on the beach here each day and was looking very closely at the brown froth on the water's edge this afternoon which is very concerning as it has normally disappeared completely by now. An early warm spell of 28 - 30 degree days in September will see a bloom for sure - as it did last year in Sep and then snot weed to follow up. Not a happy cycle we're in and I don't know if it's possible to get out of. Also makes me cry that we go through a barren winter of netting and when the netting stops the algaes arrive - then the algaes clear in April/May and the netting starts.

[cuzzamundi]

Thanks mate, some great info there. I always thought tricho was the green slugdy snot weed, so that's great to know the truth. Does the hincksia mostly affect inshore waters? I've seen it heaps along the coastline, but haven't further offshore. even on the inside of fraser, where it's prolific in certain winds, i havent seen it too far offshore from there, only in close. Is it a result of man-made pollutants running off into the ecosystem? Thanks again for all the info, mate.

cuzza

[Slider]

I've never seen hincksia on the west side of Fraser Cuzza - sure it's not lingbya - green and plastered all over the beach along with tens of thousands of dead or dying half white cockle shells? Check attached pics of lingbya at Awinya Ck and the cockles that were dying in their tens or even hundreds of thousands along the entire stretch from Wathumba to Moon - happens each year. Also every mangrove in the little side creek at Wathumba you cross to get to the southern beach from Platypus Bay track was dead - where the lingbya stopped, the mangroves were fine upstream from that very point.

The hincksia is said to require reef structure as it's initial 'natural' location and it blooms towards shallower (warmer) water from there. That could well be the case and entrapment in bays and along the beaches means that's where it tends to stay. It is most likely (virtually certain) that the increase in coastal algal blooms is as a result of phosphates in particular, but also every other nutrient that finds its way into our estuaries with rising human populations. Until this nutrient run off is controlled, then the blooms are here to stay. Only thing that I've seen remove the hincksia from Noosa Nth Shore and Fraser was a low pressure system in Feb 2004 that created very large surf and heaps of rain. As the fresh cleared, it looked like the hincksia was still there, but it quickly became apparent that it was actually huge bait schools and with tailor, trevs, mackerel and tuna herding them on to the beach. Trouble is, heaps of rain always prompts an anaulus australis bloom a week or two later as the sun causes photosynthesis to occur.

[cuzzamundi]

Yeah mate I've definitely seen that lyngbia crap on the beaches there, but also encountered a long, brown, stringy weed that clunks towards the drop off and shallows. Not sure if that's the same stuff? It makes an absolute mess of the beaches along there. Seems to be that the northerlies push it in, and the south easters take it away. Yet on the other side of the bay, at then mouth of the burrum, it comes in on a south easter, in DROVES! Either way it's a nightmare for fishing in close. I guess it's going to have to be a fact of life from now on, cos i dont see any reduction in human run off anytime soon. will get worse i reckon. what puzzles me is that the weed you get on your actual fishing line looks different from the lyngbia that washes up on the beach, which is why i wonder if there's two different weeds at work? does the weed/organism die out in the depths, then get blown into the shallows? I always wonder where it all comes from. Thanks again mate.

cuzza

[Slider]

I imagine that the hincksia would have to get on to the western side given the amount of the damn stuff on the eastern and northern beaches of Fraser. Did strike it at 1770 and Deepwater a couple of times. It was at Fraser this year too, but a stretch of south easters seems to have prevented it from becoming a major problem and drifting south to Noosa.

On the lingbya - I suspect that it is probably the dead algae that washes on to the beach. But I can't be certain that there isn't 2 separate algaes at work - or even 3. Each time that I've been to western Fraser in recent years the anaulus australis has been present along with the lingbya. But the anaulus is a microscopic particle (12000000 cells per ml) that doesn't get on the line.
Was talking with John Sinclair about the lingbya on western Fraser and he is of the belief that this algae causes ciguatera in spanish and other Hervey Bay species.

Where it comes from - these algaes can bloom in front of your eyes. Growth rates are staggering and with hincksia and linbya can be hectares of new growth per hour in idyllic conditions. Anaulus australis growth rates can be staggeringly astounding with 800km of coastline (documented - False Bay Africa) blooming in the space of a few hours - which is akin to what happens here after a widespread nutrient outfall.

[tunaticer]

I was in the mouth of Caboolture river on Sunday and in the shallows nearing low tide I could see the bottom was lined almost fully with algae, greener on the shorter growth and brown on the longer growths, the brown was detaching and coming adrift much more than the green algae. Certainly not salps dead or adrift in there.

[Slider]

Sounds more like lingbya.

[Freeeedom]

I was fishing the mouth of the Pine today and the weed was very bad. To try to determine what it was I collected a sample (wasn't difficult) and brought it home to examine microscopically. Having looked at it I'm sure it's Hincksia sordida. It's definitely a filamentous alga, which rules out Anaulus australia, which is a diatom and instantly recognisable. Lingbya is a filamentous cyanobacterium (blue-green alga) which again are quite characteristic in appearance and has unbranched filaments (in all the pics I could find on the web anyway). The 'weed' that I examined had repeatedly branched filaments with darker 'cone like' structures along the filaments. These are probably reproductive structures (either sexual or asexual - it's more than 40 years ago that I studied the algae in Botany 2a). I searched the web for a microscopic picture of Hincksia and got a perfect match!
Cheers Freeeedom

[cuzzamundi]

Wow, that is a great discovery, Freeedom! Was the weed you encountered the cotton wool like crap that is brown and clings to your sinker? I encountered heaps of it the other night on the peninsula. I'm surprised that I was still pulling in bream, 'cos I heard that the Hincksia deoxygenates the water, and thus makes it devoid of sealife. Maybe it hasn't addected the O2 levels so much yet. Who knows. Also, how exactly did you examine the weed? Bloody great find, mate.

Cuzza

[Freeeedom]

Yeah, that's the stuff Cuzza. Looks just like brown cotton wool in the water but becomes a slimy ball when it collects and slides down your line. Being a biologist I have a decent microscope of my own (which hasn't seen the light of day for a few years until today) so it was a simple matter to make a wet mount (don't get excited!) of it and have a look. It matches the picture exactly.
Cheers Freeeedom

[cuzzamundi]

Great to know we have someone with the right gear to verify this. Between yourself and Slider, I'm learning a lot about this. Thanks again for shedding some light on the matter, mate! Hopefully the bas4ard stuff won;t hang around too long!

Cuzza

[Slider]

You likely to be going to the west side of Fraser this summer Freeeedom? Nice work on the id - I expect the guys working on the 'Healthy Waterways Action Plan' - I think it's called - would be interested in that info.

I wouldn't have expected hincksia at the Pine - don't think there is any record of it being there. 'Cornflake' weed was what it was usually called around here.

[Freeeedom]

Not likely to be up that far in the near future Lindsay - have to factor in fuel costs when planning trips these days. It's getting ridiculous!
How's the weed along the Teewah beach at the moment? The amount of weed in the bay at the moment is making it close to un-fishable or at least very frustrating. Unless you can get across to Mud or Moreton it's hardly worth the effort. I might have to go back to Iluka for another week!
Cheers Freeeedom

[Slider]

No weed whatsoever mate. Saw a bit of snot weed a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise the water is clear and clean. Just a smidgen of anaulus australis showing up on the water's edge as brown foam which doesn't affect anything.

Have been trying to get some research into the goings on at the west side of Fraser happening, but without success.

[trueblue]

there was heaps of the weed out at the cockle banks last weekend - and as usual when the weed is present, there were zero whiting about

seems to send the whiting away every time the weed arrives

[PADDLES]

this weed is beyond a joke now in the caboolture river, you can't even see the concrete of the ramp through the water it's that thick. made fishing a bit difficult with having to clear my tackle of it constantly, but once i found where the fish were hiding i still got a small feed of good summeries. hey slider, does the weed make the fish try and move away from it? because i found the whiting schooled up where i've never caught them before, there was still weed there but maybe not quite as much of it.

[Si]

hey slider, some good info on this mate. it is surprising to hear that this snot weed is dead salps as it (snot weed) doesnt resemble anything like it. its a brown hair like weed with loose filaments that are quite long. is this one and the same?

cheers

algae confused