Yellow film on ocean identified as spruce pollen
On June 4, Port of Nome Harbormaster Lucas Stotts noticed a yellowish film washing ashore at the Nome harbor. “It looked to me like muddy, silty water, but usually you don’t see that here,” Stotts told the Nugget. Seeing that this strange yellow ocean water was present all the way down west beach and at the harbor, Stotts called Gay Sheffield, Marine Advisory Program agent for UAF and she took a sample of the yellow water. It was sent to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, to Dr. Dean Stockwell, researcher at the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. He suspected pollen and forwarded the sample to Susan Harry at Foundation Health at the Tanana Valley Clinic and she confirmed that indeed it is spruce pollen that turns the water yellow in several areas of Norton Sound. The experts are still testing for the type of spruce it came from. It is not toxic or harmful. The yellow water was reported in Golovin, Stebbins and Koyuk. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s LEO network reported that observers in Stebbins noticed a yellow-tinted film on ocean water. In St. Mary’s, pollen created a film on top of water collected in rain water catchment systems. In Chuathbaluk, the pollen became visible in the air as it was swept up by the wind in to a dust devil.
This year was a record breaking year for pollen release in the interior of Alaska. When trees release their pollen all at once, it can be transported via the air or waterways. As pollen is buoyant, it can travel many miles from rivers into the ocean and finally gets washed up on shorelines.