Trying to crack an ocean mystery: What caused killer algal blooms?

Craig Welch/Seattle Times

The mysterious bird-killing algae that coated Washington's ocean beaches this fall with slimy foam was the biggest and longest-lasting harmful algal bloom in Northwest history. Now the phenomenon that killed at least 10,000 seabird has scientists consumed by questions: Was it a rogue occurrence, rarely if ever to be repeated, or a sign of some fundamental marine-world shift? And did we cause it?

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