Sulphur Eruptions Responsible for Mass
Braai-ing along the Coast!
For a few precious evenings in
March the whole of Walvis Bay and
Swakopmund were steeped in the
scent of butter soaked crayfish
roasting over an open fire. Coastal
residents were happy to oblige the
spindly legged crustaceans which
seemed to storm the beaches and
tide pools en masse, clambering for
the opportunity to join our braais,
imploring us to roast them up and
serve them with chips.
Of course, the crayfish were not
actually eager to jump into our braai
fires, but there were hundreds of
thousands of them hiding away in
the shallow rock pools and washed
up on the beach for a few days.
This happens every now and then,
usually at this time of year, because
of “red tides” and, sometimes, sub-
sequent sulphur eruptions that cause
crayfish and other sea life to flee
the area. As most other sea crea-
tures are more mobile than the cray-
fish, they will head further out to
sea, or swim north or south along
the shore, but the short distance
swimmers can often only find ref-
uge toward the shore.
Other species do find their way into
the rock pools, including fish and
sharks. We even saw an octopus,
but the most common species found
on or near the shore are the cray-
fish. Other species can actually
suffer worse. Oysters and mussels
often cannot even make it to the
relative safe havens of the rock oxygen, though, and if they end up
pools. near shore they risk being stranded
on the beach out of sheer exhaus-
Anja Van Der Plas, oceanographer tion.
and senior biologist at Sea Fisher-
ies, explains that because of global As if suffocation was not bad
current and tidal patterns, the water enough, it gets worse for our eight
off our shores tends to swirl in from legged friends. In a large enough
the South. algae bloom, oxygen levels will go
all the way down to zero. When
Having cooled down off the shores this happens, anaerobic bacteria
of Antarctica, the sea water begins (bacteria that use chemicals other
to warm up again when it reaches than oxygen for respiration) start
us. In summertime, the air is not munching away at the dead algae.
only warmer here, but the seas are By this time, the algae has typically
calmer. This results in stratified settled on the ocean floor.
temperature gradients. In other
words, the water on the top of the The bacteria continue doing their
ocean is warmed by the sun, and jobs decomposing the algae, and
because the sea is not churning that give off hydrogen sulphide as a by-
water around as it does in winter, product. This builds and builds,
the temperature at the surface stays and eventually erupts to the surface.
warm, while the temperatures be- These gases are poisonous to most
neath remain cooler. species, and the effects can be dev-
astating.
The warm, calm surface water
makes for great swimming condi- The damage extends beyond the
tions, and it also makes a very cozy fish to the fishing industry.
environment for algae. In the right Through the last major sulphur
conditions this can cause a major eruption in 2006, oyster and mussel
algae bloom. This is what causes a farmers lost as much as 80% of
“red tide,” as the thick layer of al- their crop, which takes as long as
gae discolours the water giving it a thirteen months to replenish. On
reddish or brownish tint. the whole, a sulphur eruption is a
very disruptive and damaging
As Mrs. Van Der Plas explains, the event, but on the bright side, every
real problem begins when these al- couple of years the coast enjoys a
gae start to die off. The dead algae kicking crayfish braai.
is eaten by aerobic
bacteria, who use
up all of the oxygen
in the area. This is
bad news for sea
life, who begin to
suffocate without
the oxygen this wa-
ter normally sup-
plies. This is the
reason behind the
crayfish coming to
shore. They do not
actually flee the sea
for higher ground.
They do seek out
better waters for This Photo, available on the NASA website, shows a massive sul-
phur eruption along the coast.