'scrAPES #4 "A Giant Glob of Deadly Algae Is Floating off the West Coast"

A Giant Glob of Deadly Algae Is Floating off the West Coast was published by Gregory Barber, on Aug. 15, 2015. This article is al abot small little algae called pseudo - nitzschia. These pseudo - nitzschia are a subset to almost 50 percent of the worlds oxygen through photosynthesis. Scientist are not sure why they have been staying for a while, but may have a clearer idea due to the past years. Nate Mantua, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center has said that these past years have been very weird in the northeast Pacific. These pseudo - nitzschia contain a toxin most commonly known as amnesic shellfish poisoning. Shellfish and small fish eat these algae and the toxins concentrates into the eaters flesh. When going up the food-chain,birds and sea lion who are eating these shellfish can cause them to have brain damage. When the birds or sea lion eat the shellfish and small fish the toxins seep into there bloodstream and eventually to the brain. This algae will most probably not kill you if you end up having it. The illness is now very rare now since the shut downs of recreational shellfish harvesting.

This article has caught my eye because from reading the title it really sounded interesting. While reading this I learned a lot. I learned that something so helpful to humans can be also very deadly to other animals. Also it's really scary that this algae has the potential to kill you, even if its a small percentage. It may be unlikely but it still is a scary thought.

The environmental aspect of this article is the algae and the interactions it has. The algae on its own is an organism. The algae produces its own compound called domoic acid. There is not as much of anything we can do to prevent the algae but wait for storms to spread the algae around and not let them sit on the coast.