Red Tide Appearing Off Coast

A large red tide is turning the ocean water off Orange County brown by day and luminescent by night.

“We’ve been hearing about it for the last three days,” Monica Mazur, an environmental health specialist for the county’s Health Care Agency, said Wednesday. The red tide stretches from Santa Barbara to Dana Point, she said, with patches as far south as San Clemente.

“We’ve just had a meeting with people from L.A. and Santa Barbara counties,” she said, “and there are reports that it’s huge.”

While there are no significant health hazards associated with red tides, health experts say, some swimmers find the condition distasteful.

“It’s not dangerous,” said Kyle Lindo, a marine safety lieutenant at Huntington City Beach, “but it’s not the most attractive thing to swim in.”

A natural phenomenon that occurs several times a year along the California coast, red tides are caused by a massive buildup of phytoplankton--one- or two-cell floating plants that usually bloom in the spring and summer.

While the bloom gives the water a brownish-red tinge by day, it results in a beautiful luminescence at night.