Red Tide

The south end of the bay between Playa la Ropa and Playa las Gatas has so many red tide organisms that it looks like chocolate milk!

Our morning paddle started at the Links, and went across to las Gatas. The water went from sort of clear to OMG brown. Took us a few minutes to realize what we were seeing.

No oysters for us! Or bivalves of any description.

Rob, are the organisms here phosphorescent at night??? If so, tonight should be an incredible show at the south end of the bay.

The bay looks a beautiful bright blue from our vantage point, but I’ll take your word on the discoloration. As far as I know there’s no relationship between red tides and phosphorescent plankton. You can tell when the phosphorescence is high by swiping your foot across the wet sand at the water’s edge. Sometimes it sparkles brightly, other times not at all. There’s so much light pollution nowadays it’s hard to appreciate much of nature’s nighttime magic.