Caught a whiff along Bayshore lately? Mmm-hmm. It's just a collection of everyday algae, says an expert.
By TOM ZUCCO
Published May 21, 2004
Bikers, skaters, joggers, even the people who drive their cars along Bayshore Boulevard have noticed the odor coming from Hillsborough Bay. Rotten eggs and dead fish are among the kinder descriptions, and it's especially bad, city officials say, near the intersection at Bay to Bay.
Not a good thing for the city's most scenic drive.
After receiving several complaints about the stench, Roger Johansson, an environmental laboratory supervisor for the city's wastewater department, spent most of Monday in a small boat a few hundred feet from the seawall, trawling for possible causes.
The culprit, he said, is a green and red form of macroalgae that moves with the currents. In large concentrations, it can kill fish. "We usually have it in the bay all the time," Johansson said. "That's a sign of a healthy system. This time, I think the prevailing winds and tides have pushed some of it along the seawall and it just gets caught there."
When the algae decompose, they produce hydrogen sulfide, that rotten eggs aroma. Add other rotting vegetation and a few discarded plastic bottles, bags and cups, and it makes for a noxious soup.
The good news is that the algae accumulation is small, and the bay is as healthy as it has been in years.
In the 1940s, there were large amounts of algae in Hillsborough Bay, Johansson said. "But we've seen a big reduction mostly due to a reduction in the amount of fertilizer that finds its way into the bay. One of the major things was upgrading the wastewater treatment plant at Hookers Point.
"Actually, the water quality outside of the accumulation is real good. We saw small schools of small fish, baby horseshoe crabs, stingrays not far away."
Johansson said the algae will disperse, although he's not sure when.
"We'll definitely keep an eye on it," he said. "We'll go out again next month."
