What Causes Sea Foam on the Beach? Protein Does!

What causes sea foam? Simple answer: protein from dead biomass which accumulates at the beach because of its high productivity. Supposedly there isn't sea foam in crystal clear water or at far sea.
Massive chunks of sea foam blowing at Ocean Shores, Washington on the Pacific Ocean. They were sliding along pretty fast in the high winds and were quite mesmerizing. Interesting enough to make you pull over and get outta the car to stare at them for a good ten minutes. I made this video with my Canon G10 (sorry for the shaky handheld video, no tripod available) for you to share with you how amazing this was for me - ENJOY!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• sea foam
• seafoam
• beach
• ocean shores
• sea
• foam
• ocean
• washington
• blowing
• huge
• what causes
• protein
• waves

[JustHayleyM]

When I went to Science Camp the guy told us it makes a good sun screen and it really does I put it on my face and didn't get burned and we stayed in the sun for about 7 hours

[pabbananna]

@JustHayleyM that is a great tip and would make an awesome science fair project! I wonder though if it prevents both UVA and UVB rays or just the UVB? Off to the lab!

[Supermassively]

What is this stuff? I've never seen it on my vacations to the coast.

[pabbananna]

@Supermassively the foam is created by proteins in sea water and wave action near the shore. at least that is my explanation.

[MegaSlapface]

Whoa!! those are HUGE!!

[pabbananna]

@MegaSlapface

They really were. People were pulling over just to look at them.

[middlj14]

It looks like you're standing up in the skies amongst the clouds

[dogbone222]

Anyone else seen the blob.... we need a fire extinguisher and a hammer lol

[MegaSlapface]

Cool