– At first I thought it was blood. We are a fishing society, but as I got closer it was quite clear that there was no blood anyway. That’s what Hilde Bye (34) says. On Friday afternoon she discovered the red mass in the water outside the pier in Øksfjord in Finnmark. – It was such bunches. And as I got closer and the sun was shining right, it was an insane red color. It was really nice to look at. Hilde has lived by the sea all his life, but has never seen anything like it. – I’ve seen green algae, but I’ve never seen anything like this. – It is certainly difficult to judge from the picture and video without being there myself, but I have actually been down the next day to see if it might be there again. But it wasn’t. It is still a big question mark, says Hilde Bye. Photo: Hilde Bye / news Alger, Plankton or shark attack? Hilde Bye shared the observation in social media, and the response has been great. -A regular of those who have commented, both residents and strangers on the Facebook group “Finnmark in pictures”, is that they have never seen the like before. Among the suggestions in the comments section are algae, paint, raw herb, blood from crafted fish or a recent shark attack. – But it is algae and the raw that are mostly going in, even if people do not fully agree. – At least I don’t have a bearing. But it would have been fun to have certainly confirmed what it was for something, says Hilde. But that is perhaps easier said than done. The red water mass was gone the next day, Hilde Bye says. Photo: Hilde Bye / news Researcher: – A very strange sight – it is a very strange sight. Especially the sharpness of the color makes it strange. That’s what Lars-Johan Naustvoll says. He is a researcher at the Institute of Marine Research and has a good bearing on Plankton. He should preferably have seen it in a microscope to say exactly what it is, but based on only the picture he makes himself a few theories of what it might be. – My first thought was that something has been released from any substance. But he says blue -green algae can give red color in the sea. It has happened before in a small bay in Rogaland. – They are most common in fresh water, but we sometimes see them in brackish water. There has been quite a lot of runoff in the Øksfjord area, so there is probably a lot of fresh water that has come out. Thus, in theory, it can also be this blue -green algae that makes this color. – But on the other hand we have some other reports from Western Norway. And then it turned out to be iron oxide in the water, a small discharge of any substance to the sea. – Often when we see discoloration in the seawater, there are a little more diffuse colors. But this was very sharp red color. So I was very surprised, says the researcher. Photo: Kristin Olsen / news What about raw hood? – What do you think about the theory that it can be a raw hood? – Yes, it can also give that kind of color on the water, but I don’t remember it getting so powerful red, so I’m very insecure. I would like to see a test, says Naustvoll. Jørgen Berge is a professor and dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, Fisheries and Economics at UiT Norway’s Arctic University. He has also seen a picture. He emphasizes that it is difficult to say with certainty only from an image, but shares what he thinks it might be. – I’m not sure what it is, but I don’t think it’s algae. I think, but without being able to see it up close, that it is a gathering, maybe dead, jumping crabs. Raudåt. It seems to be limited to a very small area. Jørgen Berges research interests are in Arctic marine biology, polar night, zooplankton, organisms associated with the drift ice in the Arctic Ocean and the effects of climate change. Photo: University of Tromsø / Karine Nigar Aarskog Published 11.05.2025, at. 19.48 Updated 11.05.2025, at. 19.51
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