Brown tide in Friday Harbor

We've just finished about a week-long brown tide, which peaked August 12-14, with coffee-colored murky surface water. The bloom, primarily of the diatom Skeletonema, corresponded with an unusual surge of low salinity, warm water, presumably from the Fraser River north of us. The water temperature during this bloom was up to 12.5-14.5 degrees C, with salinity down to 23-25 psu; the previous two weeks showed typical summer temperatures of 10.5-11.5 C and salinities of 28-30 psu. (A similar, but slightly less extreme rise in temperature and drop in salinity occurred here July 14-18, without an accompanying algae bloom.)