(Oregon Coast) – A true mystery is brewing on the
Oregon coast, with a dozen or so scientists and public officials
stumped, and the public increasingly enthralled. (photo above: Jeanine
Sbisa).
Puzzling purple waves have been hitting the Oregon
coast here and there for the last month, and no one seems to know what
it is. Meanwhile, a lot of velella velella jellyfish – otherwise known
as Purple Sails – have shown up again as well, but the two are
completely unrelated.
Oregon Coast Beach Connection got word of the
perplexing purples in the ocean over the weekend from visitor Jeanine
Sbisa and her family. She photographed these examples of the stuff in
Neskowin on August 15. Oregon State Park Ranger Dane Osis snapped
another incident at Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria.
After sending word to a host of scientists,
naturalists, volunteers from CoastWatch and even state officials from
the Oregon Health Authority (which sends out beach bacteria alerts), no
one could come up with a positive answer. All were quite mystified and
admitted they hadn't seen anything like it. There is no evidence it's
harmful in anyway, just a big enigma.
While some scientists from institutions like the
Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport or UofO's Institute of Marine
Biology have ventured a few educated guesses, even those were tempered
with assertions that they weren't sure and that water samples needed to
be taken.
The typical response was like that of Jonathan
Modie, a spokesman with the Oregon Health Authority. He had passed along
the photos to the agency's Beach Monitoring and Harmful Algae Bloom
Surveillance programs.
“It’s difficult to identify an organism from
photographs (one thought is that it could be a type of jellyfish), and
the substance probably needs to be sampled and tested to make a reliable
identification,” Modie said.
Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department is
still working on the research, while a few phytoplankton experts from
the Hatfield weighed in on the subject.
In the meantime, Oregon Coast Beach Connection
discovered a few more eye-witnesses, including those saying they've seen
it as far back as a month ago in Lincoln City and Newport. Another
mentioned seeing the purple waves in Seaside.
Another report from Neskowin said the purple waves
had a funky smell to it, but Sbisa said she did not have that experience
in the little village when she photographed it.
What Sbisa describes mostly matched what others
reported: large segments of the tideline that were colored this vivid
and beautiful shade of purple. She found a few such areas about a 100
feet in length on a mile or so stretch between Winema Beach and
Neskowin.
“The purple was only on the edge of the water,”
Sbisa said. “I did not see any patches in the deeper water. ( in fact
the deeper water was a beautiful turquoise, instead of the deep blue
that it usually is at Winema). Some of the waves were a deep clear
purple. Other waves in other segments were a rich foamy lilac color.
The colors were amazing. Very beautiful.”
Most of the guesses from Oregon scientists included
some form of phytoplankton. One standout possibility was a form of
protozoan (similar to phytoplankton) that is common on the Oregon coast,
and when it consumes certain nutrients it can turn purple or other
similar colors.
Others reported seeing a lot of dead jellyfish in
the vicinity of their sightings, but this is purely coincidental.
Velella velella pop up periodically when washed in by western winds.
There was a huge inundation of them during the spring. These do not
create purplish waves, however.
Scientists also said it is not related to the algal
bloom that had affected Oregon mussels and still affects razor clamming
at this time. Some outrageous rumors have sprung up about the source
being from the Fukushima power plant or something from chemtrails, but
it is definitely not from factors such as those.
Currently, plenty of Oregon scientists are working
on it, and with any luck the public, fans of the coast and naturalists
will have an answer. There has been some talk of collecting water
samples, but that's unclear if that will occur.
Photo above: Dane Osis of Oregon State
Parks snapped the purple waves on Wednesday morning at Fort Stevents.
Below: more of Jeanine Sbisa's photos from Newkowin.
