brown gunk on top of water morton bay

[bdaearth]

Hi all I have been out on the bay a few days this week and have noticed a brown gunk on the top of the water and wanted to know what it was ???? I was thinking it must be some kind of algee or coral sporn?????

[tae4551]

it's coral spawn and when it came in today it was bloody thick.

[Blackened]

G'day

Yep, coral spawn, it's all through the water.... only accumulates around current lines and the lik. There was a lot of blue/grren/white stiuff on the surface at mud as well yesterday

Dave

[SNAPPERCOFFIN]

Noticed on Monday at caloundra alot of guys trolling for macks around it.

[griz066]

Dolphin fish love to hide under it too

[Slider]

Trichodesmium - algae. Not coral spawn.

[lippa]

i was out there sunday, and it looked like coral spawn to me.
if it is the algae, what detrimental effects would it have in the bay?

cheers

lippa

[bdaearth]

Trichodesmium - algae. Not coral spawn.

Mate having a look around via google I think you could be right. The photos I got up looked a lot more like what I saw than the shots of coral spawn !!

Cheers

Brenden

[ifishcq1]

Hi Guys

Slider is right it is probably algae it looks the same almost as it starts to decay

because the coral spawning was in August aprox 7-10 days after the moon and September the same period and it has gone long ago

some corals purge themselves of junk and the algae forms when the water temp is over 25c usually it comes in with the arvo north easters

Hi Lippa

it gets on the beaches up here and stinks big time I don't think it does any damage except for when it gets shut in small tidal creeks when the tide goes out and smothers little baitfish left in small puddles
it normally dissipates or breaks down in a couple of weeks weather depending

Cheers
SL

[finding_time]

Trichodesmium - algae. Not coral spawn.

Sliders spot on! It's algae out there atm , it's been making it's way sth with all the northerly's lately and had to end up in the bay eventually It sure does stink though!

Ian

[CreelReaper]

Not too sure on the origin of the algae but from what I have read lately it could be quite detrimental to the ecology. If it is thick enough and ends up some creek lined with mangroves it has the potential to slowly kill said mangroves and all the little creatures within. Potential buildup of a particular chemical casusing poisoning, to being thick enough to stop the sun from getting through stopping photosynthesis are just two scenarios that could potentially happen.

Shane

[myangle]

I would say definitely algae. I cast a line through it yesterday and ended up with little balls of the stuff on my line. It was near impossible to get off. BTW the water temp was 27deg/c yesterday.

[honda900]

Coming back down the inside of moreton the the other day, just past tangalooma, the red algae was so thick when we went through it sounded like mud spraying off the hull. Also in the middle large bands of bright green algae that smelled like soap or tea.

There was some pretty large areas of the stuff, did not look good..

Regards
HOnda

[Chris Ryan]

Would the level of nutrients in the water need to be higher to combine with the warm water this time of year to allow this to grow so well?