Photos: Toxic algae bloom kills fish in San Francisco Bay

Times Photography Wire Services
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BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 24: In an aerial view, birds fly over brownish water from an algal bloom in the San Francisco Bay on August 24, 2022 in Berkeley, California. Sections of the San Francisco Bay are being turned brown by a potentially harmful algal bloom. The California Department of Public Health has identified the algae and says it is currently not harmful to humans but could be fatal to fish and some marine life if exposed to a high concentrations of the algae. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Birds fly over brownish water from an algae bloom in San Francisco Bay in Berkeley. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

One of the largest algae blooms in recent memory in San Francisco Bay could intensify with the arrival later this week of what promises to be the longest, most intense heat wave of the year — creating perfect conditions for the toxic organisms to potentially kill even more fish across the bay, experts and water regulators said Monday.

The bloom — which is a chief suspect in the killing of thousands of fish over the last several days — appears to be affecting everything from tiny yellowfin goby to sharks, bat rays and possibly even green sturgeon, an already threatened species.

Experts and water quality regulators can't predict when this so-called red tide event will end. And they say there is no readily available solution to reverse its course and curtail the die-off of Bay Area marine life.

Hundreds of dead fish cover the banks of Lake Merritt in Oakland
Hundreds of dead fish cover the banks of Lake Merritt in Oakland, killed by a toxic algae bloom. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Cars drive on the San Francisco Bay Bridge over water streaked brown by an algae bloom
Cars drive on the San Francisco Bay Bridge over water streaked brown by an algae bloom. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Dead fish washed up on the banks of Lake Merritt in Oakland.
Dead fish killed by a toxic algae bloom washed up on the banks of Lake Merritt in Oakland. Experts and water quality regulators have little idea about when this so-called red tide event will end. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Brownish water from an algae bloom at the Berkeley Marina
An algae bloom has turned the water around the Berkeley Marina brown. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A man picks up a dead fish, likely killed by a toxic algae bloom, in Lake Merritt in Oakland.
A man picks up a dead fish, likely killed by a toxic algae bloom, in Lake Merritt in Oakland. (Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.