What is "sea foam" made out of?

Reporter Gives Update Covered In Sea Foam: MyFoxNY.com

Given the location, New Jersey/New York metropolitan area, this part of the wikipedia definition may be most pertinent:

Where polluted stormwater from rivers or drains discharges to the coast, sea foam formed on adjacent beaches can be polluted with viruses and other contaminants, and may have an unpleasant odour.
If crude oil discharged from tankers at sea, or motor oil, sewage and detergents from polluted stormwater are present, the resulting sea foam is even more persistent, and can have a chocolate mousse texture.*

Hat Tip Joe

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Hair gel and bronzer.

It's the same goo that accumulates in your protein skimmer in your saltwater tank. They're not really skimmers, but foam fractionators these days.

Actually, the report originated with Fox 5 in DC. He's standing on the boardwalk in Ocean City Maryland. While that's not the most beautiful place in the world, it's not as bad as the beaches in Jersey.

By Anonymosity (not verified) on 29 Aug 2011 #permalink

Thanks for the correction. Ocean City Maryland is not as bad as New Jersey, but it does get the effluence from Chesapeake Bay. One question would be: How many STP's shut down during the storm? (and "shutting down" means dumping raw sewage)

And next week we get live coverage of The Toxic Avenger

By uncle Glenny (not verified) on 29 Aug 2011 #permalink

Sugar, water and egg whites. Oh, you meant the other seafoam. I always thought it was bubbles, because it kind of looks like bubble bath at times.

What, you mean it's not made of dead mermaids?

Oh wait, daedalus4u already beat me to the reference.

Watching the video made me shudder. I grew up near water, and can clearly remember the nasty smell and consistency of that disgusting foam.

The only question I really have about this stuff now is:
Should we call it Bachmann or Murdoch?

I vote for Murdoch due to the gritty sliminess and the Fox connection.

When it floods, sewage treatment plants don't so much dump raw sewage as allow it to spill all over the place. That's assuming the plant or some of its treatment ponds flooded or that the pumps have all shut down. The stormwater drains are not plumbed into the sewage system but they're full of crap from idiots dumping their trash everywhere.

By MadScientist (not verified) on 30 Aug 2011 #permalink

MadScientist...
In many places, the stormwater drains feed into the sewer system. Yeah, really dumb, but cheap and works well-enough until there is a heavy rain.

Ocean City Maryland surely gets more effluent from Delaware Bay than from the Chesapeake Bay. The latter is approximately three times as distant as the former from Ocean City.

I'm highly amused that this is happening to a Fox affiliate reporter.

This may be most pertinent to what we are seeing and experiencing on the east coast. The foam is becoming more prolific with every passing low pressure that hits the east coast of Australia.

With the extreme events we are now experiencing, we can include in wikipedias explanation, tailings and waste water from numerous coal, heavy metal and CSG mines along the east coast of Australia.

By Linda Gill (not verified) on 27 Jan 2013 #permalink