Plankton blooms visible in Southeast

KETCHIKAN - Plankton blooms have been visible for weeks atop the water along shorelines, tide rips, harbors and bays in far Southeast Alaska.

The plankton blooms are unusually long-lived, said Kurt Morin of the Alaska Shellfish Nursery. Morin says plankton blooms occur just about every summer. But, he says, these blooms are continuing week after week in what has turned into months.

One of the blooms has appeared in a variety of Ketchikan-area waters, according to Scott Walker, the commercial fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Ketchikan.