03/03/2026
Here is some great information from Dr. Joe…
Sea Foam. During windy days like today, I get asked a lot about Sea Foam. Sea foam is due to oil in the seawater. It’s not petroleum or pollution-type oil. Instead it is more like vegetable oil. Lots of the microscopic algae, or phytoplankton, that live in the inshore water, produce oil as their food and energy reserve inside their cells. It’s a way to store lots of chemical energy in a small space, and secondly, the tiny oil droplets inside help the algal cells to float or keep from sinking.
As the phytoplankton manufacture oil, they also leak it. When they die, they leak it. When they are eaten and their consumers die, they also leak it into the water. So this sort of “vegetable” oil is a natural component of sea water, especially in places like ours where the water is rich with these tiny algae.
On days when the wind is blowing, stirring up the ocean and the waves are white-capping, the oils and proteins get worked toward the surface. If the wind is blowing from offshore toward the beach, this imperceptible film of oil and protein gets constantly blown onto shore. As the film catches the blowing air, that oily film forms bubbles. And as the wind continues to blow, all those bubbles result in piles of foam that accumulates on the shoreline.
