Scientific detectives on the hunt for the cause of South Australia's devastating algal bloom

Since March 2025, marine life in South Australia's seas has been devastated by an ongoing harmful algal bloom.But algae are a normal and important part of marine ecosystems - so why have they turned killer? To find out, scientists are racing to identifying the microscopic culprits.We speak to Dr Greta Gaiani from the University of Technology, Sydney about her new research. Surprisingly, one of the deadly algae has never been recorded in Australia before. Read the paper.Image: Weedy Seadragon logged under the harmful algal bloom project on iNaturalist - jmholdsworth