While marine animals such as fish and whales eat plankton, it can also prove toxic in large amounts. When a bloom occurs, it starves the ocean of oxygen, killing fish, shellfish and other creatures, which creates chaos in the natural food chain as well as fisheries.
“This is the first time that I’ve seen this much (plankton) since I was born, which means it is very severe this year,” says marine scientist Tanuspong Pokavanich, as he passes by a dead sea eel floating on the water’s surface during a field trip to collect water samples along the Chonburi coastline.
Of the currently affected area, which Tanuspong and his team estimate to be about a quarter of Thailand’s Upper Gulf, about half appears green, while the other half closer to shore has turned brown, from pollution and dead plankton, the scientist says.
“The plankton in the water will (either) consume all the nutrients…
