North Sea Plankton Bloom Seen from Space (Photo)

phytoplankton bloom in the north sea — A phytoplankton bloom in the North Sea seen on May 30, 2014, but NASA's Terra satellite.

(Image credit: NASA image courtesy LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.)

Ghostly and blue-green, a phytoplankton bloom meanders across the North Sea in new satellite imagery.

The satellite image was taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. Terra is part of a team; along with another NASA satellite, Aqua, it images the entire surface of the Earth every day or two.

Latest Videos From

Watch full video here:

Phytoplankton blooms are generally harmless, but a few produce toxins. The dinoflagellate Alexandrium, for example, blooms red rather than green. This plankton is responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning, which can be deadly in humans who ingest shellfish that have fed on Alexandrium. Not all red blooms (known as "red tides") are Alexandrium (in fact, it blooms rarely, according to the California Department of Public Health), and a bloom is not necessary for shellfish to accumulate the toxins. As a result, states like California have programs to monitor the water for these dangerous toxins.

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.