The sewage from this expandingpopulation was dumped right into thebay. By 1978 about 20,000 m
3
(over 5 million gallons) of sewage were beingdumped into the bay every day. Long be-fore then, by the mid-1960s in fact, ma-rine biologists began to notice disturbingchanges in the middle part of the bay.Loaded with nutrients, the sewage actedas a fertilizer for seaweeds. A green alga,the bubble alga (
Dictyosphaeria cavernosa
),found the conditions particularly to itsliking and grew at a tremendous rate, lit-erally covering the bottom in many partsof the bay. Bubble algae began to over-grow and smother the corals. Phytoplank-ton also multiplied with the increase innutrients, clouding the water. Kane
‘
oheBay’s reefs began to die. Such acceleratedalgal growth due to nutrient input iscalled
eutrophication
(see “Eutrophica-tion,” p.410)