Si. Blackburn et G. Cresswell, A COCCOLITHOPHORID BLOOM IN JERVIS BAY, AUSTRALIA, Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 44(2), 1993, pp. 253-260
A massive algal bloom of the coccolithophorid Gephyrocapsa oceanica Ka
mptner (Prymnesiophyceae) developed in Jervis Bay, a coastal embayment
at 34-degrees-S on the New South Wales coast, in mid December 1992. T
he bloom coloured the entire bay a dramatic milky blue-green, which wa
s clearly visible from aircraft and detectable in the visible band by
the US satellite NOAA-11. The bloom, which reached cell densities of 1
.8 x 10(7) cells L-1, persisted for a month. Such high densities of co
ccolithophorids have not been recorded before in Australian waters. Fu
rthermore, it is the first record, world-wide, of a large-scale mono-s
pecific bloom of G. oceanica. The bloom is suggested to have been driv
en by an intrusion of continental-slope water that continuously entere
d into the bottom of the bay.