Toxic algae may be the cause of water pollution of the Kamchatka coast. Now this is one of the main versions of what happened in Avacha Bay, Alexey Ozerov, director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.

      “There was a number of possible reasons. It is not clear yet. But the option that it is toxic algae comes out on top. Further, one of the main tasks is to conduct sea expeditions and  figure out what can bring these algae into such an active state that we have red flushes,” Mr. Ozerov said. 

      Red flushes, he says, is a common name for a phenomenon when algae release strong toxins. “They can affect benthic organisms, fish and, in many cases, humans. If they are in the water and it hits you, you can get burned,” he said.