How to See Sea Foam

When visitors see tan or white clumps of foam riding the tides in the slough or on the bay, they often ask “Where did that come from?” They are thinking of pollution. Maybe someone was washing a car by the waterfront. Maybe a restaurant or brewery discharged waste water or a city sewage plant has overflowed as Newport’s system and those as large as New York City’s have often done.

Pareidolia

Here on the Oregon coast , however, nature creates almost all the foam with its own waste products. Very few people entranced by the roar and spray of breaking waves know how important to the food chain and coastal is the sea foam left behind on the beaches or blown inland on the winds. It is also important to our search for new human pharmaceuticals.