Green algae present in waters around Sanibel

As Southwest Florida continues to heal after Hurricane Ian, so do its waterways, but one area is experiencing something that may have you doing a double take.

There are bright, almost neon green, algae in the waters off Sanibel. It’s hard to miss.

“Especially on the causeway, you will notice it when you’re driving across with low tide. But we see it all around Sanibel, even on the beach side. It’ll be growing on one sea walls,” said ?Rick Bartleson, a scientist with the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation’s marine lab. “It’s a macro algae called Ulva.”

Bartelson said it likes to grow on hard surfaces like the boat ramp at Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation’s marine lab.

“It’s nontoxic. It’s it frequently grows in patches and dense patches like this,” Bartleson said.

When the conditions are right, it needs spores, a surface to attach to, and Bartleson said there’s not much feeding on this algae right now, like snails, for example.