28/02/2026
Elands Bay WCRL Walk-Out
I woke up on Wednesday morning to an alert โ and a smell โ about a West Coast rock lobster walkout linked to red tide on Elands Bay point, so I went down to see it for myself. Just the night before, Monique and I had stood there watching the bioluminescence shimmer in the dark. The same bloom that lit up the ocean had revealed its darker side. Massive bio-load. Oxygen stripped from the water. Nothing left for marine life to breathe.
What I found was a stretch of coastline lined with casualties. Events like this are driven by dense algal blooms, often dinoflagellates, that build up in the water column. When that biomass collapses and begins to decay, bacteria consume the dissolved oxygen. The result is hypoxia, sometimes even anoxia. The system tips.
Rock lobsters respond in a very specific way. During severe low-oxygen events, they move toward shallow, wave-aerated water, trying to access higher oxygen concentrations in the surge zone. But when levels remain critically low, they become lethargic and disoriented. The waves push them higher and higher until theyโre stranded on the beach.
In a quick ten-minute window, I gathered a small cross-section of what had washed up to show that it wasnโt only lobster affected: dark shy sharks, two pyjama sharks, and a heartbreaking number of rock suckers โ one of my favourite fish. There were smaller numbers of jackopever, mullet, juvenile galjoen, Hottentot, plenty of klipfish, sea urchins and octopus. Reef-associated, benthic species are often hit hardest because bottom waters can become oxygen-depleted first, and they simply canโt move away fast enough.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has issued a clear public warning: washed-up lobster and fish are not safe for human consumption. The time of death cannot be confirmed, and exposure to algal toxins and bacterial contamination poses serious health risks. Consumption may result in severe illness or death. The public