Reef Conservation

The most recent information from Conservation and Fisheries on the Bloom. It is giving us some very pretty colors!

"Here's the most recent sat image from NOAA of the chlorophyll bloom. This occurs every year but rarely does it make it this far north from South America so to say how long it will last here is not something I can really say. It all depends on what the water currents, waves and wind do throughout the region over the next couple of weeks"

Taken from St John source. You can read the entire article here

An algae plume so large it can be seen by satellite appears to have flowed northward from South America to the Virgin Islands, two area scientists said Tuesday.
It was first spotted several weeks ago by fishermen and scientists as it headed northward. It has also reached Puerto Rican waters.
"The water is a different color than normal," said Richard Nemeth, who heads the Center for Marine Science at the University of the Virgin Islands. "It's kind of eerie, like pea soup."
The cloudy greenish water contrasts markedly to the normal clear blue water found in the Virgin Islands. Last Thursday and Friday the plume went down about 75 to 80 feet below the water's surface, but by Saturday the bottom edges of the plume began to mix with the water below it, Nemeth said.
"From satellite images, it looks like it's starting to break apart," he said.
Nemeth said he had heard about similar plumes during his 10 years in the Virgin Islands, but this is the first one he has seen firsthand.
The plume happens every year, but most years it doesn't travel this far north.
While no one disagrees that it originated in South America, Nemeth said he thinks it came from the Orinoco River, which exits Venezuela's northeast coast. Graciela Garcia-Molinar at the Caribbean Fishery Management Council in San Juan suggested that it came from the Amazon River, located further south than the Orinoco.