Coast Guard says substance found floating in Gulf is algae, not oil

By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune
Saturday, October 23, 2010, 7:22 PM A Coast Guard official said Saturday the orange substance floating in miles-wide areas of West Bay on the Mississippi River delta appears to be algae, not oil as reported Saturday morning by The Times-Picayune. Lt. Cmdr. Chris O’Neil said a Coast Guard pollution investigator has collected samples near the mouth of Tiger Pass and, while those samples need to be tested in a lab, “based on his observation and what he sees in the sample jars, he believes that to be an algal bloom.”
Last August large red algae blooms were confirmed on the Mississippi River delta as well as in Breton and Chandeleur sounds. LSU researchers said such large blooms are not unusual along the Louisiana coast from spring through fall if the nutrient-rich water flowing into the Gulf from the Mississippi River becomes warm enough. However, boat captains working in the BP oil spill response team who first reported the sightings as oil said Saturday they were not convinced by the Coast Guard’s initial assessment. “I’ve never seen algae that looked orange, that was sticky, smelled like oil and that stuck to the boat and had to be cleaned off with solvent,” said one captain, who like the others wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing their BP contracts. “I’ll wait for the lab reports. In fact, we’re also sending some samples off.” Boat captains had said Friday they had become frustrated by a lack of response from the Coast Guard after a week of reporting the sightings. …