🚀 go-pugleaf

In ca.environment, paul.burnett@pcs.sj.ca.us (Paul Burnett) writes:

> TO: grad@clovis.felton.ca.us

> MT>The red stuff is not actually in the bay. It is in salt
>   >evaporation ponds used by the Leslie Salt Co. The red color
>   >come from massive concentrations of planktonic organsisms
>   >known as dinoflagellates. The conditions in the ponds are
>   >perfect for their reproduction.

> They come in different colors.  At the Environmental Center, they tell
> that one can tell the salt concentration in the different ponds by the
> color of the critters who have populated it at that particular salinity.
> ---
>  . QMPro 1.0 41-8688 . ...from San Jose, CA

WRONG!!!
The red stuff in the salt ponds is known as brine shrimp.  Artemia Salina,
a small shrimp which also is used for tropical fish food.  They are netted and
sold at your local pet shop as live food for fish. The maximum size of these
shrimp is 1/2 inch or so, and they reproduce prolifically when the salt
concentration gets high enough in the salt ponds.  They also exist in Great
Salt Lake, and I think, in Mono Lake.

Dinoflagellates, I believe are an open ocean organism which are eaten by
filter feeders (Clams, Mussels, Oysters)  They contain a nerve toxin which
is concentrated by the clams.  They are mostly found when the waters warm up
and are responsible for the old agage of "Don't eat shellfish during months
without an "R" in them."  (May, June, July, August)  These are what is 
commonly referred to as the "Red Tide."


Dick Lucas