Kreef Walk Out E-Bay
Thursday 29 March 2012 A "red" alert has been issued by the fisheries department after 1.5 tons of West Coast Rock Lobster walked out 20km north of Lambert’s Bay due to red tide, with more being reported all the time, writes Spike.
Millions of crayfish have been walking out of the sea in the Elands Bay and Lambert's Bay area since late yesterday afternoon, prompting the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to raise the alert level to "red". (See the red tide lurking off the coast in the MERIS satellite images to the right. You can see Baboon Point jutting out where Elands is, where there is an extra concentration of the bloom).
Satellite images confirmed the toxic red tide bloom on the West Coast in an area roughly from Eland’s Bay to Doringbaai, which is 80km. The bloom has since spread, moved closer inshore and the density of the phytoplankton has increased.
Lionel Adendorf of DAFF said that the mortalities were a direct consequence of low oxygen waters following the decay of the bloom in near-shore waters. It was difficult to predict at this point whether more walkouts or washouts are expected.
"At this moment our officials, with the help of other local agencies, are putting stranded WCRL back into the waters and are in full control of the situation," he said.
Adendorf told Wavescape that the crayfish were safe to eat. "Only filter feeding shellfish are poisoned," he said.