Over the next two weeks, Santa Monica surfers and beach viewers may spot pink, fluorescent-toned waves — but officials say there is no need to worry.
The glowing pink scattered across Santa Monica Bay comes from a temporary dye that researchers used to study how ocean circulation contributes to poor water quality in the bay.
The project began Monday morning with UCLA and cure Bay researchers draining out of four batches of pink dye near Santa Monica Pier.
“By following where the dye goes, we will have a better understanding of how the breakwater changes its surroundings and gain insight into the poor water quality of Santa Monica Beach,” he said. Isabella arzeno-SolteroAssistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA, a researcher on the project statement.
While Monday’s pink dye does not appear to produce many “bright pink waves”, researchers warn that additional attacks of the dye (or fluorescent Rhodamine water tracer dye) will be released later this month.
But the fact that researchers on the project, a doctoral student at the UCLA School of Engineering, seems to have dissipated soon on Monday does not mean that the first phase will not lead to important data.
“There was a huge success today,” Carl said. “The dye is pink, but it’s also fluorescent, so this is our main tracker.”
Carl said a ship with a “fine-tuned fluorescent monitor” will stay in the bay for 24 hours, and until the end of this month, the buoy will still have at least 10 trackers attached to the buoy.
The study aims to help researchers understand how artificial breakwaters built in Santa Monica Bay in the 1930s are visible during tidal times and may damage the circulation of water and therefore the quality of water. Santa Monica Pier usually has annual highs The Dirtiest Beach List of the State Cures Bay by Environmental Nonprofit Organizationit can test waters up and down the California coast to get feces bacteria, which can damage travelers.
The Santa Monica Bay breakthrough was to create the construction of the dock, but the storm and time damaged the Mustang, although the remnants of the rock disruption still affected the flow, the researchers said.
“It still significantly affects coastal fluid dynamics and surroundings,” Timu GallienAssociate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA and the study’s lead researcher said in a statement. “For example, a breakwater can protect the beach from large waves and make the beach wider than nature.”
Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete watched the first deployment Monday morning and said she hopes the study will help her city finally get off the car “Beach Bar” list. The city has partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles’ Samuel School of Engineering and the Bay Foundation.
“We are trying to see if the water cycle is so poor that concentrated pollution is created in the north and south of the dock,” Negrete said. “We don’t want to continue on the beach bummer list – it’s a creepy!”
She said it is one of many projects that help researchers understand and solve water quality problems, including a relatively new one Advanced water treatment facilities and Dune restoration project.
“It’s all working together,” Neglet said. “The entire ecosystem is important.”
The researchers did not include in the announcement what remedies were recommended if the breakwater determines whether the water quality was to cause poorer water quality or a factor. That could be a multifaceted decision involving urban and environmental leaders.
Although this is the first time dye is used in Santa Monica Bay, UCLA researchers say the coloring has been used on other waterways for years, explaining that it is naturally dispersed and has no risk to people, animals, or vegetation.
Carl said there may be more pink when the team makes another dye’s surface level drop next week, but it may not be that much when they do two deep water drops later this month.
Nevertheless, despite posts on the Santa Monica Pier area, the pink of the bay may not be a spectacle: “Why is the water pink?”
Carl said the team wanted to make sure that if pink was found, the public would not be shocked.
Carl said the next surface-grade dye deployment will occur sometime from September 22 to 24, and the last underwater deployment will be on September 30.
