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Spring Bloom continues in Hecate	Present +/- into late June
	Unusual? Or do Satellite images give us better understanding of changes?

Streaks in Skeena River water = plankton blooms

Using WWW to monitor the plankton Blooms in Hecate

This US GOV site is updated daily and has search function for older images (from days to years). Here is a global view for comparisons.

-- Image to left is poor – but shows blooms in Skeena water as seen from helicopter on 25 May – the Skeena was beginning its freshet --
-- when flew over the Hecate strait waters it was clear – and no blooms seen (below left)

Interpretation: nutrients in Hecate have been exhausted earlier in spring – while Hecate freshet bringing new nutrients into marine waters	Contrast Hecate & Skeena
	Above is NOAA image 24^th May showing bloom (red color) along eastern shore of Chatham sound – ‘green’ water in Hecate has less chlorophyll a on this scale

Water is so clear here that I can see the bottom where there are sea urchins on the bottom maybe 15 feet below low water surface – and a few days later couldn’t see anything – which I interpret as indicative another plankton bloom	Water was so clear see bottom on left – and can’t see 5 feet in couple weeks – sort of like a secchi disc measurement

Over already

Image on 26^th (far left) shows intense bloom QC Sound but nothing in Hecate – by next day bloom tapering off – but by next good image day see Hecate in full bloom—then < next day

	Explanations??
	Let’s assume most the images are “true” i.e. red reflects actual bloom conditions and clouds are not distorting interpretations; then why do blooms wax and wane so quickly? Hypothesis to test would be nutrients are used up quickly (but winds etc are mixing waters making more available) one would expect this to be a May-June phenomena. And some of these blooms followed strong winds --- the image left I interpret as Skeena River freshet waters ‘fertilizing’ Dixon Entrance (6/17) and waning by 18th as water pushed south into Hecate by strong north winds

Created by LG on JUNE/18/2005

Last updated on Monday, July 11, 2005