Surreal sight as Aberdeen harbour engulfed by foam - picture

Published on 25/09/2012 17:23

AT first glance it looks like a generous dump of snow but the white layer which smothered the seafront of the Footdee area of Aberdeen is in fact foam from the North Sea.

Heavy gales which battered the shore on Tuesday morning led to the water being whipped up into an extraordinary foam lather as air piled into the water” and mixed up with organic material.

“The sea is acting like a washing machine,” said Prof Christopher Todd, marine ecologist at the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews.

He said: “It is likely there are phytoplankton cells and they produce a lot of mucus which when whipped up can form this foam.”

Most phytoplankton are too small to be seen but they can form an algal bloom in the spring and, to a lesser extent, in the autumn.