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Like someone put a blanket over the ocean': Kelp could be among fires' casualties

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Sunday, March 2, 2025

The boat bobbed gently off Malibu’s Big Rock Beach as a trio of scientific divers wriggled into wetsuits and double-checked tanks and regulators.Behind them unfurled a panorama of devastation from the Palisades fire a month earlier. Blackened vegetation dotted the hillsides rising above Pacific Coast Highway. Rubble and lonely chimneys littered the shore where beachfront homes once stood.One by one, the three divers slipped beneath the surface, nets and knives at the ready. They were seeking evidence of the fire’s underwater toll, particularly its effect on a vital anchor of the coastal ecosystem: kelp. Boat captain Joey Broyles, center, discusses the plan for the day during a kelp collection dive by Kelp Ark off the the coast of Malibu. (William Liang / For The Times) The divers were with Kelp Ark, a San Pedro-based nonprofit seed bank that preserves and stores genetic material from West Coast kelp species. The Feb. 10 dive was their second since fire and subsequent rains injected tons of ash and debris into the ocean ecosystem. “When we think about wildfires, we think a lot about how that impacts the terrestrial realm, how destructive it can be to the land,” said Lori Berberian, a second-year PhD student in geography at UCLA who studies the effects of wildfire on kelp abundance and habitat distribution. “But there are huge implications for the coast.”Forests of kelp, a fast-growing brown algae, provide food and habitat for hundreds of marine species and absorb greenhouse gases that might otherwise hasten climate change.Yet kelp is also highly sensitive to environmental changes. Fluctuations in temperature, light availability, nutrients and pollutants can have surprisingly swift consequences on kelp populations, which have waxed and waned along the California coast in recent decades.And few things have shocked L.A.’s ecology like January’s Palisades and Eaton fires, which burned more than 40,000 acres, destroyed at least 12,000 buildings and drained tons of ash, debris and toxic residue into the ocean.No one yet knows how sea life will respond to an urban fire of this magnitude. Kelp may be one of the first species to tell us.“They’re a big sentinel species that are indicators of how our coastal ecosystems are thriving,” said Erin Hestir, a remote sensing specialist and associate professor at UC Merced.Hestir is the principal investigator of KelpFire, a NASA-funded research project that uses remote sensing and on-the-ground observations to track the effects of wildfire runoff on kelp populations. (William Liang / For The Times) While every rainfall washes dirt and urban gunk into the ocean, that process is turbocharged after a wildfire. Fire consumes vegetation that would otherwise hold soil in place and alters soil chemistry so that it absorbs less water.This massive infusion of sediment disrupts kelp’s access to two things it needs to survive: rocks and sunlight.A glut of dirt and pollutants can interfere with kelp spores’ ability to securely attach to rocks and reefs, either by binding to the spores themselves or by littering rock surfaces.And when ash and debris fall upon the ocean’s surface, it reduces the amount of sunlight that filters through the water and provides the light kelp needs to photosynthesize.Kelp isn’t the only marine species that suffers when deprived of light or pumped with pollution. But the prominent role it plays makes it an important bellwether for broader problems spurred by a changing climate.Berberian, the UCLA doctoral student, is also a member of the research team. She developed a Post-Fire Kelp Recovery Index to compare kelp canopy extent after a fire to its historical average.The team found that mature giant kelp beds shrank after the 2016 Soberanes fire in Monterey County, the 2017 Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and the 2018 Woolsey fire in the Santa Monica Mountains. They still haven’t returned to pre-fire levels, Hestir said. Sedona Silva, left, hands off her kelp during a collection dive by Kelp Ark off Malibu. The seed bank is concerned about the health of Southern California’s kelp populations after debris from the recent wildfires was found in the area. (William Liang / For The Times) Recovery rates varied widely by location. Using satellite data, Berberian found that the median recovery rate of kelp beds near Malibu was a mere 7% in the two years after the Woolsey fire. In the same time period, beds off of Palos Verdes rebounded 61%, with some areas recovering almost completely.All of those fires dumped sediment into the ocean. But January’s infernos introduced a new variable, said Kyle Cavanaugh, a coastal geographer and UCLA professor who is also on the KelpFire team.Previous wildfires burned mostly brush, trees and other organic material. The Palisades and Eaton fires incinerated homes, cars and everything in them: plastics, electronics, batteries, asbestos, lead pipes and household chemicals. No one knows yet what effect this will have on sea life.“There’s certainly evidence that certain types of hydrocarbons and metals are toxic to early life stages of giant kelp, and you might expect that would be a bigger issue with all of the urban structures that burnt,” Cavanaugh said. “That’s something somewhat unique about this.” Declan Bulwa carries kelp he collected during the collection dive. Forests of kelp, a fast-growing brown algae, provide food and habitat for hundreds of marine species and absorb greenhouse gases that might otherwise hasten climate change. (William Liang / For The Times) California’s giant kelp faces a number of different threats, and Hestir cautioned between drawing a direct line between any single disturbance — fire included — and decline of visible canopy.Yet as the environmental disruptions pile up — prolonged marine heat waves, changing ocean chemistry, stronger and more frequent storms — so does the worry that the next disturbance could be a tipping point.“What we’re concerned about is that these kelp are already under these stressors . . . and then you end up with a wildfire event, and maybe that’s what really tips it over the edge and doesn’t allow it to recover,” Hestir said.Kelp Ark’s divers observed these challenging conditions firsthand during an initial post-fire collection trip on Jan. 27.Days earlier, the first significant rains since May sent contaminants surging into the ocean. Kelp is shown at Kelp Ark’s laboratory where they store kelp seeds. (William Liang / For The Times) The ship’s wake was the color of chocolate milk. The ocean seemed to reek of burnt trash, said crew member Taylor Collins. The anchor chain, which on a typical day is visible for about 10 feet into the water, disappeared into opaque murk mere inches below the surface.Before the divers rolled in, captain Joey Broyles let down a waterproof camera to assess conditions below.The first 3 feet of seawater were choked with soot, dirt and pollution, said Bernadeth Tolentino, lead scientific diver and a graduate student in the USC lab of Kelp Ark founder Sergey Nuzhdin.Visibility beneath the layer of soot was close to zero, she said. Divers held hands to keep track of one another underwater before calling it quits.“It was almost like someone put a blanket over the ocean,” Tolentino said. Hayden Schneider examines kelp at the San Pedro-based nonprofit Kelp Ark, which preserves and stores genetic material from West Coast kelp species. (William Liang / For The Times) Two weeks after that murky dive near Malibu Creek, the Kelp Ark team set out again to collect kelp samples to take back to their facility at AltaSea in the Port of Los Angeles for analysis and spore harvesting.For this outing they chose a spot popular with recreational divers, where kelp was frequently recorded prior to the fires.Two hours after plunging into the ocean, Tolentino and colleagues Declan Bulwa and Sedona Silva climbed wet and winded back into the boat.They’d seen all the animals a diver would expect to see in a kelp forest, such as garibaldi fish and kelp bass.But the only signs of the big brown algae were a few loose floating pieces and some decaying holdfasts on rocks near the shore — a sign that kelp had been there in the recent past, but no longer.

Divers recently sought evidence of the Palisades fire's underwater toll, particularly its effect on a vital anchor of the coastal ecosystem: kelp.

The boat bobbed gently off Malibu’s Big Rock Beach as a trio of scientific divers wriggled into wetsuits and double-checked tanks and regulators.

Behind them unfurled a panorama of devastation from the Palisades fire a month earlier. Blackened vegetation dotted the hillsides rising above Pacific Coast Highway. Rubble and lonely chimneys littered the shore where beachfront homes once stood.

One by one, the three divers slipped beneath the surface, nets and knives at the ready. They were seeking evidence of the fire’s underwater toll, particularly its effect on a vital anchor of the coastal ecosystem: kelp.

Boat captain Joey Broyles, center, discusses the plan for the day during a kelp collection dive.

The divers were with Kelp Ark, a San Pedro-based nonprofit seed bank that preserves and stores genetic material from West Coast kelp species. The Feb. 10 dive was their second since fire and subsequent rains injected tons of ash and debris into the ocean ecosystem.

“When we think about wildfires, we think a lot about how that impacts the terrestrial realm, how destructive it can be to the land,” said Lori Berberian, a second-year PhD student in geography at UCLA who studies the effects of wildfire on kelp abundance and habitat distribution. “But there are huge implications for the coast.”

Forests of kelp, a fast-growing brown algae, provide food and habitat for hundreds of marine species and absorb greenhouse gases that might otherwise hasten climate change.

Yet kelp is also highly sensitive to environmental changes. Fluctuations in temperature, light availability, nutrients and pollutants can have surprisingly swift consequences on kelp populations, which have waxed and waned along the California coast in recent decades.

And few things have shocked L.A.’s ecology like January’s Palisades and Eaton fires, which burned more than 40,000 acres, destroyed at least 12,000 buildings and drained tons of ash, debris and toxic residue into the ocean.

No one yet knows how sea life will respond to an urban fire of this magnitude. Kelp may be one of the first species to tell us.

“They’re a big sentinel species that are indicators of how our coastal ecosystems are thriving,” said Erin Hestir, a remote sensing specialist and associate professor at UC Merced.

Hestir is the principal investigator of KelpFire, a NASA-funded research project that uses remote sensing and on-the-ground observations to track the effects of wildfire runoff on kelp populations.

Sedona Silva enters the water during a kelp collection dive by Kelp Ark off the coast of Malibu.

While every rainfall washes dirt and urban gunk into the ocean, that process is turbocharged after a wildfire. Fire consumes vegetation that would otherwise hold soil in place and alters soil chemistry so that it absorbs less water.

This massive infusion of sediment disrupts kelp’s access to two things it needs to survive: rocks and sunlight.

A glut of dirt and pollutants can interfere with kelp spores’ ability to securely attach to rocks and reefs, either by binding to the spores themselves or by littering rock surfaces.

And when ash and debris fall upon the ocean’s surface, it reduces the amount of sunlight that filters through the water and provides the light kelp needs to photosynthesize.

Kelp isn’t the only marine species that suffers when deprived of light or pumped with pollution. But the prominent role it plays makes it an important bellwether for broader problems spurred by a changing climate.

Berberian, the UCLA doctoral student, is also a member of the research team. She developed a Post-Fire Kelp Recovery Index to compare kelp canopy extent after a fire to its historical average.

The team found that mature giant kelp beds shrank after the 2016 Soberanes fire in Monterey County, the 2017 Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and the 2018 Woolsey fire in the Santa Monica Mountains. They still haven’t returned to pre-fire levels, Hestir said.

Sedona Silva, left, smiles after handing off her kelp during a kelp collection dive by Kelp Ark off the the coast of Malibu.

Recovery rates varied widely by location. Using satellite data, Berberian found that the median recovery rate of kelp beds near Malibu was a mere 7% in the two years after the Woolsey fire. In the same time period, beds off of Palos Verdes rebounded 61%, with some areas recovering almost completely.

All of those fires dumped sediment into the ocean. But January’s infernos introduced a new variable, said Kyle Cavanaugh, a coastal geographer and UCLA professor who is also on the KelpFire team.

Previous wildfires burned mostly brush, trees and other organic material. The Palisades and Eaton fires incinerated homes, cars and everything in them: plastics, electronics, batteries, asbestos, lead pipes and household chemicals. No one knows yet what effect this will have on sea life.

“There’s certainly evidence that certain types of hydrocarbons and metals are toxic to early life stages of giant kelp, and you might expect that would be a bigger issue with all of the urban structures that burnt,” Cavanaugh said. “That’s something somewhat unique about this.”

Declan Bulwa carries kelp he collected during the collection dive.

California’s giant kelp faces a number of different threats, and Hestir cautioned between drawing a direct line between any single disturbance — fire included — and decline of visible canopy.

Yet as the environmental disruptions pile up — prolonged marine heat waves, changing ocean chemistry, stronger and more frequent storms — so does the worry that the next disturbance could be a tipping point.

“What we’re concerned about is that these kelp are already under these stressors . . . and then you end up with a wildfire event, and maybe that’s what really tips it over the edge and doesn’t allow it to recover,” Hestir said.

Kelp Ark’s divers observed these challenging conditions firsthand during an initial post-fire collection trip on Jan. 27.

Days earlier, the first significant rains since May sent contaminants surging into the ocean.

Kelp is shown at Kelp Ark's laboratory where they store kelp seeds.

The ship’s wake was the color of chocolate milk. The ocean seemed to reek of burnt trash, said crew member Taylor Collins. The anchor chain, which on a typical day is visible for about 10 feet into the water, disappeared into opaque murk mere inches below the surface.

Before the divers rolled in, captain Joey Broyles let down a waterproof camera to assess conditions below.

The first 3 feet of seawater were choked with soot, dirt and pollution, said Bernadeth Tolentino, lead scientific diver and a graduate student in the USC lab of Kelp Ark founder Sergey Nuzhdin.

Visibility beneath the layer of soot was close to zero, she said. Divers held hands to keep track of one another underwater before calling it quits.

“It was almost like someone put a blanket over the ocean,” Tolentino said.

Hayden Schneider looks at kelp at the San Pedro-based nonprofit Kelp Ark.

Two weeks after that murky dive near Malibu Creek, the Kelp Ark team set out again to collect kelp samples to take back to their facility at AltaSea in the Port of Los Angeles for analysis and spore harvesting.

For this outing they chose a spot popular with recreational divers, where kelp was frequently recorded prior to the fires.

Two hours after plunging into the ocean, Tolentino and colleagues Declan Bulwa and Sedona Silva climbed wet and winded back into the boat.

They’d seen all the animals a diver would expect to see in a kelp forest, such as garibaldi fish and kelp bass.

But the only signs of the big brown algae were a few loose floating pieces and some decaying holdfasts on rocks near the shore — a sign that kelp had been there in the recent past, but no longer.

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

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Scientists Hope Underwater Fiber-Optic Cables Can Help Save Endangered Orcas

Scientists from the University of Washington recently deployed a little over 1 mile of fiber-optic cable in the Salish Sea to test whether internet cables can monitor endangered orcas

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — As dawn broke over San Juan Island, a team of scientists stood on the deck of a barge and unspooled over a mile of fiber-optic cable into the frigid waters of the Salish Sea. Working by headlamp, they fed the line from the rocky shore down to the seafloor — home to the region's orcas.The bet is that the same hair-thin strands that carry internet signals can be transformed into a continuous underwater microphone to capture the clicks, calls and whistles of passing whales — information that could reveal how they respond to ship traffic, food scarcity and climate change. If the experiment works, the thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables that already crisscross the ocean floor could be turned into a vast listening network that could inform conservation efforts worldwide.The technology, called Distributed Acoustic Sensing, or DAS, was developed to monitor pipelines and detect infrastructure problems. Now University of Washington scientists are adapting it to listen to the ocean. Unlike traditional hydrophones that listen from a single spot, DAS turns the entire cable into a sensor, allowing it to pinpoint the exact location of an animal and determine the direction it’s heading.“We can imagine that we have thousands of hydrophones along the cable recording data continuously,” said Shima Abadi, professor at the University of Washington Bothell School of STEM and the University of Washington School of Oceanography. “We can know where the animals are and learn about their migration patterns much better than hydrophones.”The researchers have already proven the technology works with large baleen whales. In a test off the Oregon coast, they recorded the low-frequency rumblings of fin whales and blue whales using existing telecommunications cables.But orcas present a bigger challenge: Their clicks and calls operate at high frequencies at which the technology hasn’t yet been tested.The stakes are high. The Southern Resident orcas that frequent the Salish Sea are endangered, with a population hovering around 75. The whales face a triple threat: underwater noise pollution, toxic contaminants and food scarcity.“We have an endangered killer whale trying to eat an endangered salmon species,” said Scott Veirs, president of Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability, an organization that develops open-source acoustic systems for whale conservation.The Chinook salmon that orcas depend on have declined dramatically. Since the Pacific Salmon Commission began tracking numbers in 1984, populations have dropped 60% due to habitat loss, overfishing, dams and climate change.Orcas use echolocation – rapid clicks that bounce off objects – to find salmon in murky water. Ship noise can mask those clicks, making it difficult for them to hunt.If DAS works as hoped, it could give conservationists real-time information to protect the whales. For instance, if the system detects orcas heading south toward Seattle and calculates their travel speed, scientists could alert Washington State Ferries to postpone noisy activities or to slow down until the whales pass.“It will for sure help with dynamic management and long-term policy that will have real benefits for the whales,” Veirs said.The technology would also answer basic questions about orca behavior that have eluded scientists, such as determining whether their communication changes when they’re in different behavioral states and how they hunt together. It could even enable researchers to identify which sound is coming from a particular whale — a kind of voice recognition for orcas.The implications extend far beyond the Salish Sea. With some 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) of fiber-optic cables already installed underwater globally, the infrastructure for ocean monitoring largely exists. It just needs to be tapped. “One of the most important challenges for managing wildlife, conserving biodiversity and combating climate change is that there’s just a lack of data overall,” said Yuta Masuda, director of science at Allen Family Philanthropies, which helped fund the project.The timing is critical. The High Seas Treaty enters into force in January, which will allow for new marine protected areas in international waters. But scientists still don’t understand how human activities affect most ocean species or where protections are most needed. A dataset as vast as the one the global web of submarine cables could provide might help determine which areas should be prioritized for protection.“We think this has a lot of promise to fill in those key data gaps,” Masuda said.Back on the barge, the team faced a delicate task: fusing two fibers together above the rolling swell. They struggled to align the strands in a fusion splicer, a device that precisely positions the fiber ends before melting them together with an electric current. The boat rocked. They steadied their hands and tried again, and again. Finally, the weld held. Data soon began flowing to a computer on shore, appearing as waterfall plots — cascading visualizations that show sound frequencies over time. Nearby, cameras trained on the water stood ready so that if a vocalization was detected, researchers could link a behavior with a specific call.All that was left was to sit and wait for orcas.The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environmentCopyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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New York to appeal after judge OKs radioactive Indian Point water in the Hudson

Governor Kathy Hochul has confirmed that the Indian Point nuclear plant will not be reopened, despite a federal judge's ruling that the state's Save the Hudson Act, which aimed to prevent the dumping of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River, was invalid.

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — A federal judge in New York last month struck down the state's Save the Hudson Act, a law that aimed to prevent Holtec International, the owner of the decommissioned Indian Point nuclear plant, from dumping over a million gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River. Still, despite the ruling and her openness to expand nuclear power in the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) maintains that the site will not reopen. "Let me say this plainly: No," Hochul wrote in a letter to Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins on Friday, which can be read at the bottom of this story. Entergy, the previous owners of the Indian Point Energy Center, shut down its final reactor, Unit 3, in April 2021. Holtec bought the three-unit nuclear power plant located in the northwestern corner of Westchester County on the eastern bank of the Hudson River in May 2021. Use it or lose it: Summer EBT food benefits expiring Friday The plant is undergoing a decommissioning process that includes removing equipment and structures, reducing residual radioactivity, and dismantling the facility. Holtec projects that process to finish by 2033. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sided with Holtec in a lawsuit they filed in April 2024, agreeing that state law can't block the discharge of radioactive wastewater from nuclear sites being decommissioned. The court found that only the federal government has that authority, because federal law like the Atomic Energy Act overrules the state under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Hochul launches $1B clean climate plan as state, federal energy agendas diverge The judge determined that S6893/A7208 wasn't meant to protect the radiological safety of the public or the environment, which falls under federal jurisdiction. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced their intent to appeal the decision, arguing that the law represents vital protections for the iconic river and the economic health of the region through tourism and real estate values. Jenkins applauded the decision to appeal, saying, "The Hudson River is the lifeblood of our region—a source of recreation, natural beauty, and economic vitality—and we must do everything in our power to protect it." And in the letter to Jenkins, Hochul directly addressed the concern that the state government may plan to reopen Indian Point or build small modular reactors on the site. NYC storm cancels Columbus Day parade amid Indigenous Peoples Day debate "There have been no discussions or plans," the governor wrote. "I would not support efforts to do so." Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group, called the ruling a blow to the progress made in restoring the Hudson River. They worked with local officials to pass the Save the Hudson Act in 2023 after Holtec announced plan to release the wastewater. New York’s 2040 energy grid: Nuclear power, public renewables, and fracked gas pipelines The wastewater in question is contaminated with tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen created during the nuclear fission process. Tritium—whose half-life is 12 years—bonds with oxygen, meaning the wastewater cannot be filtered. S6893/A7208, signed by Hochul in August 2023, lets the attorney general enforce the ban with civil penalties of $37,500 for the first day of violation, $75,000 for the second, and $150,000 per violation thereafter. It came in response to Holtec's initial plan to put between 1.3 and 1.5 million gallons of tritiated water from the spent fuel pools, reactor cavity, and other holding tanks into the Hudson. The company maintained that discharge would be the safest option for the tritiated water, that the planned release represented just 5% of what the plant discharged historically, and that the plan followed federal guidelines. Data challenges tax flight claims in New York The company wanted to start dewatering with three 18,000-gallon batches—45,000 gallons in total—in May 2023. Holtec paused their initial plan so the state could perform independent sampling and analysis of the water. Federal water standards set the maximum contaminant level for tritium at 20,000 picocuries per liter, though California, for example, aims to say below 400 picocuries of tritium per liter. Regulations on radioactive releases from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal body managing decommissions, are based on the dose to the public, regardless of the volume of the discharge. 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Fish Kill at Clear Lake Reveals a Seven-Foot Sturgeon Surprise 

A problem lake was doing pretty well this year. Then came a series of unfortunate water-quality events. The post Fish Kill at Clear Lake Reveals a Seven-Foot Sturgeon Surprise appeared first on Bay Nature.

Tiny silver fish float up at Clear Lake in August. Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians records indicate this was the biggest fish kill since 2017. (Courtesy of Luis Santana)As Luis Santana motored out onto Clear Lake this August, it seemed at first like a normal summer day out on the water: warm air, cloudy skies, and the wide lake waters full of what seemed like bubbles from the waves. “Then I stopped, and I was like, Oh my god,” Santana, a fisheries biologist with the Robinson Rancheria tribe, recalls. Those weren’t bubbles; they were millions of dead threadfin shad, and others. “I saw literally every species of fish found in the lake,” except for the Clear Lake tule perch, Santana says. The measurements he took that day revealed what likely killed them: a near-total lack of oxygen in the lake. The fish had, essentially, suffocated. Amid the silver-lined shores, one fish washed up that no one had known to be a resident: a dead seven-foot-long white sturgeon. It was Clear Lake’s first on record. No one knows for sure how it got into the waters, but Santana thinks it died with the shad. White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), the biggest freshwater fish in North America, live in the Bay-Delta. They became a candidate for listing as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act after a 2022 harmful algal bloom that killed hundreds of them. Big ’un: A white sturgeon—in Clear Lake? CDFW says the average sturgeon caught in the Delta these days is about 3.6 feet long, and it is rare to encounter fish larger than 6.5 feet long in California. This one was seven feet. (Courtesy of Luis Santana)This fall’s fish die-off is the lake’s largest since at least 2017, according to records from the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians. And it is yet another environmental black mark for a lake—California’s largest freshwater body—that has been consistently troubled by poor water quality. Now, scientists are uncovering the exact cause of the die-off—and analyzing the sturgeon for more answers. For Angela DePalma-Dow, a lake scientist and executive director of the Lake County Land Trust, the event reminds her: “There’s so much we can learn from Clear Lake.” As a five-year-old, Santana spent every summer day swimming in Clear Lake. That’s a distant dream now. The summer lake—despite the name—is rarely clear; more often, it’s clouded dirty green as harmful algal blooms take over the waters. Sometimes, Santana thinks the water smells like sewage. “I don’t think my kids have ever swam in Clear Lake,” Santana says. Fish die-offs and fish kills are a consequence of these impaired conditions, especially the frequent harmful algal blooms (HABs), during which algae decompose and strip the water of oxygen (while also filling the water with cyanotoxins). The Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians has tracked harmful algal blooms in Clear Lake since 2014. The program started after five years of “thick, noxious blooms covering [Clear Lake’s] surface” (as the tribe writes in a history of the program) and no regular monitoring from the state, despite recommendations from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. “We just needed to have more data,” says Sarah Ryan, the environmental director at the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians. “It seems like they have fish kills every year,” says Ben Ewing, who studies the endemic Clear Lake hitch, a large minnow, at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I lost track with how many.” In 2017, the state Legislature formed a committee to restore the lake, citing high mercury levels, dangerous contaminants in fish, and the regular HABs; to date, it has led to tens of millions in state funding for research, restoration, and education projects on Clear Lake, including helping sustain water quality monitoring cut by the state during the Covid pandemic. Cyanobacteria bloom at Redbud Park, in Clear Lake’s southeast arm, in July 2020. Big Valley Pomo EPA’s sampling found toxins at a “warning” level. The lake is frequently beset by harmful algal blooms. (Courtesy of Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians)This die-off, Ewing says, caught lake-watchers off guard because 2025 seemed like the year Clear Lake might escape a fish kill. The characteristic pea soup of harmful algal blooms had been noticeably absent. Instead, the cause was likely a perfect storm of other conditions, says Ewing. “Everything had to line up correctly for this to happen,” he says. Two bountiful water seasons laid the ground for it, DePalma-Dow explains. Fish populations—especially nonnative bait fish like shad—boomed with the increased water, which also meant some fish naturally died. She speculates that as their bodies decomposed, they stripped oxygen from the water column. Then, this fall, heavy winds came and distributed the low-oxygen water throughout the water column. A series of cloudy mornings arrived, during which the lake’s aquatic plants couldn’t respire oxygen back into the water. So more fish likely died, triggering oxygen levels to further plummet. Eventually, conditions became fatal for all species of fish. Santana says he measured “basically zeroes on every level” for dissolved oxygen through the water column. DePalma-Dow says this process is just the lake self-regulating, as fish populations outstrip the oxygen available. “This is totally not surprising for a lake cycle event,” she says. “This is a big, huge, natural system.” Santana blames human disturbance for the die-off. “We took away all the habitat that could potentially negate any of these effects,” he says. Clear Lake has lost up to 90 percent of its wetlands, he says, and creeks that might once have provided an infusion of oxygen-rich water into the lake now run dry in May and June. “There’s just so many things we’re taking and taking and not giving back,” he says. A satellite image of Clear Lake during a May 2024 algal bloom. The emerald color doesn’t tell you whether toxins are present, though. That requires water sampling, which the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians EPA has been doing since 2014. (Sentinel-2 satellite, via the Copernicus browser)In lieu of those natural processes, technological solutions are being considered: Researchers from UC Davis are exploring installing oxygenators in Clear Lake that could trap nutrients in the sediment under a thin layer of oxygen, theoretically reducing the number of harmful algal blooms—and, possibly, keeping oxygen levels higher so more fish can breathe. “That would be one of the hopeful outcomes,” says DePalma-Dow. Neither the state nor county put out a press release about the die-off, Ryan notes. “It’s always better if you can anticipate the questions and try to get information out.” For now, those living by the lake watch (and smell) the dead fish decompose. “There’s really no post support,” she says. The August die-off on Clear Lake silvered the shoreline. It claimed fish of “literally every species,” says Luis Santana, a Robinson Rancheria fisheries biologist. (Larger fish on shore courtesy of Luis Santana; silvery shoreline by Shawna McEwan; closeup by Sophia Zesati) Fish populations will likely recover, scientists say. Many fish probably survived, in nooks and crannies. With good winter rains, they can breed and repopulate the waters by spring. This die-off is just another challenge for a beleaguered lake. As for the sturgeon? USGS scientists were trying to figure out how old it was, and hoping to answer when it got to the lake, but the government shutdown has since paused their work. And they cannot answer questions about their research until the shutdown ends. Santana’s observations of the sturgeon showed it was a female with eggs. For now, the giant fish is a reminder of the treasures that may hide in Clear Lake’s murky waters. “Every year is a mystery and surprise,” DePalma-Dow says.

Water

Education

Health

Millions of households face jump in water bills after regulator backs more price rises

Competition watchdog agrees requests from Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern, Wessex and South East to raise household billsBusiness live – latest updatesWater bills for millions of households in England will increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided provisionally to let the companies collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn that the firms had requested. Continue reading...

Water bills for millions of households in England will increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided provisionally to let the companies collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn that the firms had requested.The five companies – Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern, Wessex and South East – together serve 14.7 million customers. The changes will add 3% on average to those companies’ bills, on top of the 24% increase previously allowed.The companies appealed to the CMA in February for permission to raise bills by more than allowed previously by the industry regulator, Ofwat. They argued they needed more to meet environmental standards.Water bills have become the subject of significant political controversy in recent years in the UK amid widespread disgust over leaks of harmful sewage into Britain’s rivers and seas.Emma Hardy, the water minister, said: “I understand the public’s anger over bill rises – that’s why I expect every water company to offer proper support to anyone struggling to pay.“We’ve made sure that investment cash goes into infrastructure upgrades, not bonuses, and we’re creating a tough new regulator to clean up our waterways and restore trust in the system.”English and Welsh water companies are mostly privately owned, but the prices the local monopolies can charge customers are regulated by Ofwat over five-year periods. Ofwat in December said average annual household bills could rise by 36% to £597 by 2030 to help pay for investment.Ofwat said the companies could spend £104bn in total, paid by consumers.The allowed bill increases stopped well short of the water companies’ requests. The CMA said the expert panel had largely reject companies’ funding requests for new activities and projects beyond those agreed by Ofwat. However, the panel did allow more money for returns to investors, to reflect sustained high interest rates since the bills increases were approved.Anglian Water, serving the east of England and Hartlepool, asked for the average annual household bill to rise to £649 – a 10% increase – but was granted only £599, or 1%. Northumbrian, mainly in north-east England, asked for £515, or 6%, and was given £495, also 1%.South East Water, which only provides drinking water and not sewage services in several home counties, asked for an 18% increase to £322, but was allowed 4% to £286. Southern Water, on England’s south-east coast, asked for a 15% increase to £710. That would have been the highest bill in England and Wales, but it was allowed only a 3% increase to £638.Wessex Water in south-west England asked for an 8% increase to £642, and was granted the biggest proportional increase on appeal of 5% to £622.The CMA and other regulators have faced pressure from the Labour government to put more focus on economic growth. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, this year appointed former Amazon boss Doug Gurr to lead the CMA.Kirstin Baker, the chair of the group that decided on the appeals, said: “We’ve found that water companies’ requests for significant bill increases, on top of those allowed by Ofwat, are largely unjustified.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion“We understand the real pressure on household budgets and have worked to keep increases to a minimum, while still ensuring there is funding to deliver essential improvements at reasonable cost.”For affected households, the price increases will add to inflation on the cost of living. Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, which represents consumers, said “further increases will be very unwelcome”, and questioned whether the CMA should have allowed higher returns for investors.“There is a danger the customers of these companies will end up paying more, without seeing any additional improvements in return,” he said.Environmental groups have questioned why companies are allowed to return cash to shareholders while continuing to pollute Britain’s rivers and seas. James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, a campaign group, said: “Once again, water bill payers are forced to shoulder the cost of decades of failure.“Millions of households in England face higher bills while rivers continue to suffer from mismanagement by privatised water companies. In 2024 alone, four of these five companies were responsible for at least 1.4m hours of sewage discharges into rivers and seas – a stark illustration of ongoing environmental harm.”The CMA group’s decision will also be carefully considered by Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water company with 16 million customers. Thames also appealed initially but has agreed to pause it while the utility and its creditors negotiate with Ofwat over a restructuring plan to try to cut its debt burden and prevent it collapsing into temporary government control.Thames is still considering a request for a further £4bn. People close to Thames Water had criticised Ofwat’s approach to the price determination, arguing that the utility needed much more cash to turn around its performance on pollution.The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.If you have something to share on this subject you can contact the Business team confidentially using the following methods.Secure Messaging in the Guardian appThe Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Scroll down and click on Secure Messaging. When asked who you wish to contact please select the Guardian Business team.SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and postIf you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each. Illustration: Guardian Design / Rich Cousins

Water

Business

Pollution

Suggested Viewing

Fish

An old couple are living in an apartment, the man is sleeping and the woman is doing housework. The lady wants to change the fishbowl’s water but it slips out of her hand and falls on the ground. They've ran out of water and there’s no water for the fish. But with the help of the man they find water.

Water

Culture

Fiction

Gaia & Luna: A Mermaid Dream Journey

At the start of the pandemic, in 2020, my then nine-year old daughter began coming to my bed in the middle of the night — something she hadn’t done in years — and I returned to a practice of recording her dreams upon waking. This was a dream she had October 20, 2020 while still living in Brooklyn — before I took her — for her first time ever— to spend half the year living in St. Croix.

Water

Family

Youth

SeaMonster II

SeaMonster II is a single channel video with sound, duration 14:19. All the objects used in this performance were collected at the sea shore near the artist's studio on the island of Aegina. This work is part of the "SeaMonster" series. The first iteration "SeaMonster Monk" a live performance took place at the Athens Art Fair 2019 and was featured at the WhiteBox NYC in 2023.

Water

Pollution

Nature

Cracked

A little girl lives in a village with her mother where water sources are dwindling by day. Drought effects her imagination, even her doodles and drawings. Not only people but the nature struggles with the unrelenting aridness. This little girl though, never loses hope. She tries to do as best she can, sacrificing from herself for her beloved nature.

Water

Youth

Family

THE WATER WILL TAKE US

This film tells the story of the victims of the flood of 2019 in Iran, which happened in the three provinces of North, Central and South of the country and left a lot of damages. The main narrators are three women who reveal the causes of this incident and mismanagements and tell the story of the people who were left to fend for themselves during the flood and after.

Water

Social Justice

Climate

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Like someone put a blanket over the ocean': Kelp could be among fires' casualties

Related News

Scientists Hope Underwater Fiber-Optic Cables Can Help Save Endangered Orcas

New York to appeal after judge OKs radioactive Indian Point water in the Hudson

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Fish Kill at Clear Lake Reveals a Seven-Foot Sturgeon Surprise&nbsp;

Millions of households face jump in water bills after regulator backs more price rises

Suggested Viewing

Fish

Gaia & Luna: A Mermaid Dream Journey

SeaMonster II

Cracked

THE WATER WILL TAKE US

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sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Fish Kill at Clear Lake Reveals a Seven-Foot Sturgeon Surprise

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