Sipalay beach turns pink as small shrimps blanket shoreline
BACOLOD CITY — Tiny shrimps have turned the beachfront in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental, pink for four days now.
The shrimps have blanketed about half a kilometer of shoreline, from Barangay 2 to Barangay 5, every morning since Sunday, with the largest volume seen on Wednesday, Oct. 14, said Dionilo Bogtae, coordinator of the Sipalay City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office.
He also said more than a hundred residents were seen along the shoreline carrying various containers to gather the shrimps.
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They are brought in by the tide before dawn and washed back into the sea when the high tide hits, Bogtae said.
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He said Sipalay had experienced similar landings before, but in smaller amounts.
The city is known for its white sand beaches, so residents were surprised to see the shoreline turn pink.
Bogtae said they had no actual scientific explanation for the landings.
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Prevailing coastal winds pushing inland are said to generate surface currents that drift swarms of small, weak-swimming planktonic shrimp toward the shore and beach margins.
Rising high tides may also push deep-water plankton and small crustacean clusters into coastal inlets, estuaries, and shallow bays. /mcm
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