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Brian Hoffman brought his grandkids to fish at The Pier at Garden City, where he has fished during vacations for over 20 years.
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He hooked a fish within the first 10 minutes Thursday morning and thought it’d be a good day.
But he spent the next two hours reeling in every 15 minutes to pluck a red, seaweed-like material off his line, something he has never seen before during his tenure as a visiting fisherman.
“It’s a nuisance,” Hoffman said.
Clumps of the material are floating near the beaches along the Grand Strand, and swimmers are in its path. But what is it?
South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ staff believe it to be a species from the genus Polysiphonia, also known as the red hair algae.
Daniel Sasson, SCDNR assistant marine scientist, said that it popped up around the same time last year and the team attempted to identify it, but they are still not 100% certain what it may be or what caused it to come ashore now.
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If it is the red hair algae, Sasson said it is not native to South Carolina’s coast but has occasionally been observed since at least the 1980s. However, it seems to have been more pervasive the last couple of years than in the past, he said.
He said it’s possible offshore storms or winds have blown it toward the coastline, and it is not directly harmful for those who may have come in contact with it.
When the algae was observed in the area last year, it seemed to persist for about three weeks before completely disappearing. It’s unclear whether it may follow that same trend this year, he said.
Shrimpers in Charleston have reported the bloom to SCDNR, and Sasson said as far as he knows it is reaching from Kiawah Island up the South Carolina coast.
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