good morning people of the world :3 !!!!! i am now a freshman at gay college and it's going pretty well!!! i only have four classes each week, so it's not that hard. i really like having an entire friyay to mysalf.

anyways, i'm here to share a fact from oceanography that really stuck with me. also! please click on the pink text as you read it because i think it would be funny.

nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus run off land into water, and eventually end up in the oceans. microscopic algae called phytoplankton use these nutrients for "algal blooms," which is the rapid growth of algae in a body of water. this is what makes water appear green instead of blue, by the way. these phytoplankton are usually green in color and the mass amount of them makes the water appear green.

phytoplankton can also be red! an algal bloom of red phytoplankton is called the "red tide," and it causes the water to look red. the red sea, for example, got its name for the seasonal blooms of red algae. some red algae, however, are TOXIC! *gasps in the audience!* red algae produces powerful toxins that can kill or harm fish, shellfish, marine animals, birds, and even humans.

in february of 2002, a red tide appeared in the atlantic ocean near the coast of south africa. around a thousand TONS of rock lobsters emerged from the waters, either to get away from the toxins or because confusion is a symptom of being exposed to toxic red algae. A THOUSAND TONS OF LOBSTERS. the locals first thought was, "oh, these lobsters willingly came out of the water because they are a gift from God!" WRONG. toxic red algae. so all these locals near the coast of south africa ate these toxic-algae riddled lobsters, and the locals all got red tide poisoning.

the end!