Beaches at the eastern coastal area of Port Said have turned green, sparking concern amongst citizens as to the cause of the phenomenon.
Many feared it as a sign of something serious, following the Moroccan earthquake and Storm Daniel in Libya.
The Dean of the Faculty of Science at Port Said University, Farid Ibrahim al-Desouki, clarified the reasons behind the strange event after commissioning the Department of Marine Sciences to investigate the cause.
Their examinations revealed the phenomenon as being a sudden gathering of green algae, scientifically known as an “algal bloom,” typically resulting from high temperatures, an increase in organic nutrients, greater intensity of sea currents, and other factors.
The Faculty of Science at Port Said University explained that these factors led algae at the coastal strip to cluster by up to five to 20 meters wide, with their area varying according to the intensity of sea currents.
It added that eventually sea waves will throw the algae onto the sands where they will dry out and die, with the phenomenon gradually dispersing as water temperatures increase to an unsuitable point for the algae.
The faculty assured this phenomenon is normal, with no pollutants found according to the laboratory tests of the samples taken from the water and the suspended algae.
