Mystery foam engulfs northern seaside town

Foam blown from sea covering streets and houses of Cleveleys, near Blackpool, is thought to be non-polluted algal matter

sea foam cleveleys near blackpool
There's no place like foam … Cleveleys, near Blackpool gets in a lather with foam blown in from the ocean. Photograph: MEN Syndication

A thick white blanket settled gently on the seaside town of Cleveleys near Blackpool on Wednesday, but this was no seasonal dusting of snow from above.

The Environment Agency dispatched officers to Princess Promenade to gather evidence as gobs of foam blew in from the sea and smothered streets, cars and houses.

The foam is whipped up by strong winds once or twice a year along the town's seafront and vanishes soon after, a spokeswoman for the agency told the Guardian.

Lab tests on samples collected in earlier years have found no signs of pollution. Decomposing algal matter is the prime suspect for the mysterious lather.

"It appears to be naturally occurring. When the tides and winds combine to churn dead algal matter up from the bottom of the sea, it produces this foam, which is quite dramatic," the spokeswoman said.

Officers visited Cleveleys on Wednesday and again on Thursday to collect more specimens to analyse. The results of the tests are expected to confirm the foam is natural and not caused by detergent in seawater or other pollution.

By studying the foam, the agency hopes to learn how and why it forms and so predict when the froth will return.

"If we can understand what conditions cause it, that will help us predict it and help local authorities involved in the cleanup operations," the spokeswoman said.


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Comments

60 comments, displaying oldest first

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  • Stanlow

    29 December 2011 6:43PM

    Looks fun. But is it a hazard at all?

  • Dscaper

    29 December 2011 6:47PM

    About the closest Blackpool will ever get to being Ibiza...

  • Sajetan

    29 December 2011 6:50PM

    That's quite funny. I grew up in Cleveleys, and when I emerged from the sea as a little nipper, covered top to toe in such foam, my mum freaked out at the pollution and forbade us to enter the sea again. The cause, the local newspaper revealed, was the short sewage lines spilling all Blackpool's shit into the sea just beyond the tidal zone.

  • JazzTulip

    29 December 2011 6:55PM

    I believe it's called 'spume'. It's created in the top/surface layers of the sea as it churns and there used to be a suggestion that it might partition out any radioactive content in the sea water and potentially act as a channel for radioactive contamination. But .... they did some research and it turned out it was mostly ok after all. You'll be fine, just remember it's actually a form of sea water, so if I look at all those cars in that picture you might want to let them dry out a bit first before you try starting them.

  • repeatandfade

    29 December 2011 7:02PM

    I am no expert, but one would have thought that if it is decomposing algal matter, the smell would be rather distinctive. I agree with JazzTulip above, I think it is more likely to be spume, highly concentrated by the right, or wrong, conditions.

  • chargehand

    29 December 2011 7:09PM

    mind you the place looks a lot better with the spume...

  • misterjohn

    29 December 2011 7:21PM

    I lived in Cleveleys as a child from 1958 to 1970, and don't remember this phenomenon.
    We did seem to get the occasional ship on the promenade, however.
    I tended to avoid the sea at Cleveleys, because of the raw sewage and the low temperature of the water.
    You always needed a shower after a swim to get rid of the coating you'd acquired. It wasn't so bad in the swimming pools.

  • Novelist

    29 December 2011 7:21PM

    Proctor and Gamble are probably working out a way to sell it to us as the next "natural" detergent.

  • madrilenoingles

    29 December 2011 8:04PM

    Well Blackpool Council could just be whitewashing the locals with their froth and mirrors again

    .......of course it's still the most radioactive sea in the world and rather full of sewerage - the big news story should when it becomes clean - now that will be a novelty.

  • BriscoRant

    29 December 2011 8:22PM

    The same happened in Ulster - can recall Portstewart Strand covered many years ago, spume blown in after a gale. Harmless, knee deep, fun for kids to wade through. And watch large chunks of it, wind-blown, skidding along the wet sand..

  • Ameliacottage

    29 December 2011 8:28PM

    Wouldn't this suggest more extreme flora imbalance resulting in more algae? Maybe due to oil spills? If this type of thing is not common, you'd think there would be more curiousity.

  • benjamin1988

    29 December 2011 9:00PM

    I have noticed this foam/spume before in rivers on the moors in Yorkshire when holidaying with family. It looked the same as in the photographs, but just not so much of it.

  • torinesi

    29 December 2011 9:13PM

    Purely in the interest of pedantics, surely it would be best to rinse it off rather than let it dry on the car, to minimise the risk of corrosion to the bodywork. Unless it was drawn in through the air intake, I wouldn't have thought there was any danger from starting the engine.

  • Paul2905

    29 December 2011 9:36PM

    OK, who put the fairy liquid in the sea?

  • 2flight

    29 December 2011 9:39PM

    Obvious question not asked in the article: what caused the algae bloom?

  • barfiller2

    29 December 2011 9:43PM

    "Cleveleys, near Blackpool gets in a lather with foam blown in from the ocean." Caption writer needs to learn that the Blackpool region is not on the 'ocean'.

  • tomalley

    29 December 2011 9:54PM

    Happened in Hastings a couple of years ago, not as dramatically as this picture. A turgid yellow meringue shivering on the shoreline. Me and the kid went wading in it, and we are still here. Might holiday in Cleveleys next year.

  • Sajetan

    29 December 2011 10:11PM

    I lived in Cleveleys as a child from 1958 to 1970, and don't remember this phenomenon.

    I was born in 1970, so it seems we can roughly date the origin of this interesting natural phenomenon. I later got more of an insight into the sources of corruption that resulted in the wholesale rape and downfall of the Fylde coast, before escaping.

  • soozi007

    29 December 2011 11:04PM

    We were on Portstewart Strand (Co. Derry) in September and there was something similar, although not as dramatic. It was similarly mild, but stormy weather.

  • Tarantella

    29 December 2011 11:25PM

    This is simply completely fabulous and wonderful. Best thing of the thankfully receding 'festive' season so far. Cleveleys has clearly been blessed.

  • mickyj

    29 December 2011 11:50PM

    We get mild cases of this on beaches in Australia - usually closer to cities and sometimes after heavy rains have washed shit down storm water drains into the ocean.

    This 'news' story in the 'trusty' Guardian is just another smoke(foam?)screen - rest assured folks, there's crap in that there foam... have you ever seen a photograph even remotely like this from anywhere in the world before... A natural phenomenon that we've never seen along millions of miles of coast all around the globe - unlikely.

    Not so transparent Liquid Bullshit in the media protecting Blackpool tourist interests.

  • readerinn

    30 December 2011 12:01AM

    There was a leftover Gorgonzola-sauce in my kitchen today. It was full of bubbles like a yeast dough.

  • Higfig

    30 December 2011 12:57AM

    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

  • junedawes

    30 December 2011 1:19AM

    I had a very similar experience to this last night after I inadvertently spilled the shampoo. We had foam waste-deep throughout the bathroom. I think my husband rather enjoyed himself!

  • mitchellkiwi

    30 December 2011 5:46AM

    Is sewage still being dumped into the sea? I thought that had been made illegal years ago. How come seaside towns are too lazy to build sewage processing plants like the rest of the country?

  • buildabridge

    30 December 2011 6:16AM

    Totally agree with you. This is pollution sourced for sure; I've seen this ^spume' in terribly polluted rivers in Spain and India. The Irish Seas notorious pollution levels; industry waste, sewage waste, nuclear waste have heaved back up on the land to haunt us.

    The authorities are covering up whatever has caused this to avoid a panic. It will need independent lab tests from the likes of Greenpeace to know what has caused this.

    Annoying to be paying taxes for misinformation from the authorities; i feel like I'm living in East Germany of old.

  • jekylnhyde

    30 December 2011 7:54AM

    . The results of the tests are expected to confirm the foam is natural and not caused by detergent in seawater or other pollution.


    Or chemicals from fracking. Will we ever know? Would they ever tell us?

  • tipatina

    30 December 2011 8:30AM

    am creaming of a white christmas...bingo crosby

  • pondersalot

    30 December 2011 9:17AM

    LOL! Even such an innocent phenomenon brings out the conspiracy and evil pollution theorists! The trouble with our age of instantly shared 'information' in the hands of everyone is that the cranks and silver-foil hat wearing people can seem as 'factual' as anyone else. Get real.

  • JazzTulip

    30 December 2011 9:38AM

    Yeah, probably, though since they're already on the coast any residue'll probably wash off next time there's a strong gust of wet air coming inland. It's not sturdy stuff. Regarding the engine, I'll take your word for it. I would just be concerned that the whole engine might have been given a bath if it's got under the bonnet. But, you, car technology's better these days.

    I notice people have commented that the amount of spume shown is too much, but I've seen that amount before caught in very small rocky bays. It gets driven in by the current and builds up over time. So it's not totally outwith the possibility that it could build up somewhere, then the current changes, it transfers out and gets blown onshore.

  • JazzTulip

    30 December 2011 9:42AM

    I know! That was just mind boggling, and would mean we have some seriously over-producing whales. Seriously, can't she do the bloody scale maths?

    On second thoughts, no, presumably not.

  • dor35

    30 December 2011 10:08AM

    Whilst I am capable of being as cynical as the best of them, perhaps you should be aware that seaweed extracts are widely used as non-detergent foaming agents and also as food thickeners. This foam phenomenon is not rare at all, and can occur in areas with no pollution.

    I'm not saying it isn't the result of pollution, just trying to put a more scientific opinion up against the "must be pollution they are lying to you" mob.

  • Sajetan

    30 December 2011 11:23AM

    Is sewage still being dumped into the sea? I thought that had been made illegal years ago.

    The EU forced Blackpool to start treating its sewage in the 90s. Before that all the untreated sewage from the Fylde coast was spewed out directly into the Irish Sea. Nowadays it only "discharges out to sea during storm conditions. We are permitted to do this by the Environment Agency and are very closely monitored on the frequency we discharge to sea".

    link

  • babel17

    30 December 2011 12:48PM

    have you ever seen a photograph even remotely like this from anywhere in the world before... A natural phenomenon that we've never seen along millions of miles of coast all around the globe - unlikely

    You mean like this one? -

  • babel17

    30 December 2011 12:53PM

    Meant to add that a quick Google for Sea Foam turned that one up. Wikipedia also has the same explanation - break up of algal bloom - as a source.

  • 4danglier

    30 December 2011 1:02PM

    In the surf film "Endless Summer" they're surfing in similar conditions, somewhere in the middle of nowhere in S. Africa. I think they called the spot "Weird Point".

    It's most probably caused by algal blooms: ie natural. HOWEVER, as you said, what caused the algal bloom? Agricultural run-off of fertilisers, sewage, industrial waste, climate change, radiation-induced mutations.....??

    (The last one was a nerdy joke BTW)

  • BaddHamster

    30 December 2011 1:59PM

    Come on people! Get real! It's obviously Islamist extremists in conjunction with the IRA and masterminded by the Tories. My guess is that they've set up a network fo factories where they turn poor/infidel/unionist people into glue and this is the waste product.
    We're through the looking glass here.

  • theharper

    30 December 2011 2:42PM

    I fished from the beach at 5 Bar Gate just north of Blackpool a few times in the winter of 2004/5 (there were some cod about at the time) and encountered this once. I'd never seen anything like it in 40+ years of fishing around the English coast. There was a club match during the same evening and the local lads said it was relatively common occurrence in winter during strong SW Winds and heavy rain.

    It was a metre deep in places and stank of detergent! I took some pictures and notes and reported to the EA hotline that night. The operator was local, though not one of the field officers. He confirmed it was not uncommon and his own view was that the combination of heavy rain, saturated soil and onshore wind caused the problem. Confirming my own suspicion that raw sewage, though heavily diluted (by rainwater) entered the sea via storm water overflows and is then churned to a foam and dumped onshore by SW gales.

    This makes perfect sense compared to the EA mystery natural algae evasion. Indeed, I asked if I could be contacted by a relevant EA officer to discuss the matter asap. The following day I received a call from the EA from someone who gave the clear impression that they were being prompted in how to respond to me. And was duly given the 'natural foam' spiel despite my reminding them that the foam stank like Fairy Liquid!

    Given that this is a popular seaside resort that likes to blow it's trumpet about bathing water quality targets met, I don't think you need have a desire to see conspiracies everywhere to believe the EA explanation is rubbish.

    There is nothing illegal going on here, storm water overflow is standard practice to prevent STW being overloaded during heavy rain and the basic premise of dilute and disperse is sound. But if you take your bathing water samples in flat seas after dry weather you'll never detect the circumstances that create these foams.

    I work in the field of environmental pollution and no one I have spoken to, outside of the EA, believes that these foams are caused by anything more 'mysterious' than domestic waste-water.

  • timtfj

    30 December 2011 3:58PM

    The quality of conspiracy theory has definitely gone down, though. This sort of thing used to be attributed to UFOs, which was a lot more fun. You can't even get a decent conspiracy theory these days.

    Analyse it, see what's in it, that's what it is.

    Someone mentioned sewerage . . . Sewerage is a network of pipes. I think it's a lot more likely that the sea contains sewage than sewerage.

  • ddraper

    30 December 2011 4:33PM

    I think Rick Santorum is responsible. GD frothy mixture.

  • readerinn

    30 December 2011 7:52PM

    Annoying to be paying taxes for misinformation from the authorities; i feel like I'm living in East Germany of old.

    We had a research biogas plant next to our East German village. So we were quite well informed about processes of degradation.

    If you want to express that your feel utterly fooled, you should say that you feel like living in Britain in 2011.

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