(NBC, KYMA/KECY) – A group of scientists from San Diego just happened to be off the coast of LA when the fires started, and what they found could affect us months or even years from now.
When the fires tore through Los Angeles destroying thousands of homes and businesses, they also sent towering plumes of ash and smoke out over the ocean, visible from space.
As chance would have it, a group of scientists from San Diego happened to be off the coast of LA, collecting water samples.
“Dark gray confetti all over the water, which was the ash, thats how they described it,” said Dr. Noelle Bowlin, PhD, with NOAA Fisheries.
With the deck-covered in soot, scientists changed course and started collecting that ashy ocean water because even the tiniest debris in that water could tell us a lot.
“What are the impacts of the fire, the smoke in the marine ecosystem,” Dr. Bowlin remarked.
Bowlin heads up whats called the CalCOFI Project, which started 75 years ago.
“Our team goes out and collects plankton samples, and they get preserved in jars like this,” Bowlin shared.
More than a million of those samples have now been preserved in a room like tiny time capsules.
“Thousands of little larvae and you know they all have a story to tell,” Bowlin stated.
As the ocean and what’s in it changes, even just a little, so can those samples.
“If something doesn’t look right in how its formed, you’ll see it. You’ll be able to see that,” Bowlin expressed.
This is not the first time scientists have studied wildfire ash falling into the ocean, but these are not typical wildfires.
“So many of those fires that we’ve seen before are vegetation fires. These are urban fires. These are houses, neighborhoods, people’s homes and businesses,” Bowlin explained.
This means when memories and livliehoods went up in flames, so did all kinds of toxic materials, something now being referred to as “urban ash.”
“The ash, honestly is going to contain a lot of toxins. We expect to see asbestos and other polycarbonates that we wouldn’t see in a vegetation fire. Right now off of California, this is peak anchovy spawning. In the ash samples, we have pictures from our crew at sea of samples that are thick with anchovy eggs and a bunch of ash and fire debris in that same sample. Why should people care about a whether anchovies are healthy or not or the ecosystem is healthy or not? Well, because the base of the food system is so important for humans. anchovies feed birds, mammals, other big fishes that we all love to eat.”
Dr. Noelle Bowlin, PhD, NOAA Fisheries
So, think of it like a “trickle-up” effect, that could take weeks or years to notice.
When asked if she was concerned, Bowlin said, “Ya I am. I’m concerned because we do expect to see some change. Will it be huge? I don’t know that answer. So, yes, I’m concerned, and I’m concerned for the community.”
That group of scientists is still out off the coast collecting those samples.
The next step will be to bring them back to San Diego to start comparing them to the decades worth of other samples they have stored.
