422 – Algal Bloom Beach Witness Johanna Williams

Occupational therapist turned “marine-biologist” Johanna Williams describes the emotional toll of daily documenting the South Australian algal bloom at Glenelg using iNaturalist, before The Adelaide Show wraps up with a local musical reflection on the marine tragedy.

For months, as an algal bloom wreaked havoc on the South Australian coast, most residents steered clear but not Johanna Williams. She’s been down to Glenelg Beach daily, ruler and phone in hand, methodically tracking the carnage. What started as a small, concerned step by a self-described occupational therapist soon transformed into a citizen science project with over 10,000 observations of dead and dying marine life, offering a grim, close-up view of the ecological disaster. Johanna’s commitment, though personally confronting, gives scientists and the community essential data and a crucial human perspective.

This episode does not feature the SA Drink of the Week segment.

The show concludes with a Musical Pilgrimage that connects directly to the episode’s urgent environmental theme. We hear Steve Davis & The Virtualosos’ “While the Ocean Died,” a lyrical and sonic reflection on the collective pain and political complexities surrounding the algal bloom event.

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Running Sheet: Algal Bloom Beach Witness Johanna Williams

00:00:00 Intro

Introduction

00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week

No SA Drink Of The Week this week.

00:02:55 Johanna Williams

Arriving home from a holiday to find Glenelg Beach “covered in dead fish” , Johanna Williams had a choice: unpack and write an angry Facebook post, or take action. She chose the latter, inadvertently becoming one of the state’s most dedicated, non-professional “marine biologists”. Initially hoping the algal bloom would be a “transient, short-term event,” the surreal extent of the death spurred her to use the citizen science platform iNaturalist to upload her observations, believing this crucial “coalface” data would reach qualified scientists and government bodies to “formulate responses”.

Her daily 500-metre trek between Pier Street and the Jetty has revealed a tragic yet fascinating marine diversity. What she’s documenting—now over 10,000 observations—includes rare deep-sea fish like the long snout boar fish and warty prowl fish, species scientists rarely encounter alive. This wealth of data is heartbreakingly significant, as it allows researchers to collect, age, and perform genetic and toxicological testing on specimens that could never be found otherwise, highlighting the deep reach of the bloom into the ecosystem.

The work is intensely confronting, involving more than just dead fish. Johanna describes a traumatic encounter with a still-alive, spiky globe fish whose eyes were “really gazing and tracking” her. This and finding a paralysed silver gull due to toxic effects highlight the profound emotional toll and moral dilemmas faced by citizen scientists, such as whether to “prolong its death by putting it back in the water”. Johanna discusses how a supportive network of friends and a new community, including people from the university, has helped her “channel that energy” and despair into empowerment and meaningful data collection.

This environmental disaster also casts a shadow over the Glenelg foreshore, with Johanna noting a ripple effect of reduced foot traffic and the closure of local businesses, a “double whammy” alongside local tram disruptions. For listeners wanting to help, Johanna suggests starting with iNaturalist uploads, or connecting with projects like the SA Marine Mortality Project 2025 to assist with collecting fish for testing or contributing to local rehabilitation efforts, such as making oyster beds (wind chimes) to help filter the water.

• Great Southern Reef
  • Website
  • Mission: “Our mission is to inspire and empower society to protect and sustain Australia’s Great Southern Reef by promoting recognition, stewardship, and sustainable actions through impactful education, community engagement, and collaborative science.”
  • Janine Baker
• OzFish Unlimited
  • Website
  • Description: OzFish Unlimited is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping the millions of Aussie recreational fishers take control of the health of their rivers, lakes and estuaries and shore up the future of the sport they love. OzFish Unlimited partners with fishers and the broader community to invest time and money into the protection and restoration of our waterways, counteracting decades of degradation.
  • Brad Martin
• Data gathering for South Australian 2025 marine mortality events
  • Project Link
  • Description: This project is set to automatically add aquatic vertebrates and macroinvertebrates annotated ‘dead’ from Feb 2025 onwards. Janine Baker is a key contact for this projects and has links with universities and researchers.
• SA Surf and Bloom
  • SA hub for information on our bloom. Share surfing/algae/ocean/coastal pictures and videos. Ask questions. I aim to share the love we have for our oceans, and keep surfers informed of the symptomatic surf spots.
  • Facebook Group
• ADELAIDE ALGAE BLOOM DISASTER
  • Facebook Group
  • Description: A place to upload pictures of this marine disaster that’s going to impact the Adelaide fishing scene for many years to come.
• Phytoplankton Society of South Australia
  • Facebook Group
  • Description: This group is for sharing knowledge on the Phytoplankton of South Australia, particularly in regard to the 2025 algal bloom we are experiencing. We welcome photos of microscopic phytoplankton (and accompanying pics of where they were taken) and especially experts who can identify them. This is a citizen science project for the benefit of everyone. We are also on iNaturalist. Big Thanks to Faith and Peri Coleman, Gabby at www.asisscientific.com.au, the Big Duck Boat, Victor Harbor Dolphin Watch and others who have made this possible.
• Sarah Hanson-Young, Manager of Greens Business in the Senate & Senator for South Australia
  • Annual Report 2025
• Further articles:
  • “Harmful Algal Bloom Aerosols and Human Health“
  • “Thousands of seadragons dead in South Australia’s worst recorded harmful algal bloom — IUCN Seahorse, Pipefish & Seadragon“
• An underwater guide to plants and animals in South Australia
  • PDF Guide
• PIRSA Factsheet – What to do if you have seen sick or dead birds
  • PDF Factsheet
• Birdlife Australia: Helping injured birds
  • Article
• Fishwatch SA
  • If you find an injured fish on the beach, stay a safe distance away and do not touch it. Report the animal by calling the local fish authority, such as FISHWATCH in South Australia (1800 065 522), or a wildlife rescue hotline, as professionals are trained to handle these situations.

00:37:06 Musical Pilgrimage

In the Musical Pilgrimage, we play a deeply personal and thematically appropriate piece by Steve Davis and the Virtualosos, titled “While the Ocean Died”.

The song, which Johanna describes as an “earworm” that helps her “process what’s going on”, was inspired by Johanna’s ground-level work, leading Steve to appreciate the “cost of this whole thing”. The host reveals that songwriting is his way of thinking out loud to process complex issues. The track’s bridge reflects on the political challenge leaders face in times of crisis, where a long chain of “short-cuts and shortcomings” has left the region vulnerable to a multitude of causes—from the River Murray flood of nutrients to the sea heatwave—that have fuelled the toxic bloom. It’s a poignant, urgent piece that closes the show by connecting the human story of witnessing with the broader South Australian environmental tragedy.

Here’s this week’s preview video

There is no featured video this week.

SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.

An AI generated transcript – there will be errors. Check quotes against the actual audio (if you would like to volunteer as an editor, let Steve know)

422-The Adelaide Show

Steve Davis: [00:00:00] Hello, Steve Davis here. Welcome to episode 422 of the Adelaide Show Podcast. If you hadn’t noticed. We have an algo bloom problem in South Australia, have had for many months, and our guest in this episode is not a chief scientist or a government person. It’s a fellow citizen. Her name is Joanna Williams.

Since late July, she’s been walking. The half a kilometer between where she lives and the Glen Jetty every day, keeping an eye on the shoreline and observing it and uploading her details to iNaturalist, which is a website that’s gathering a lot of this information so that, uh, scientists and government can see right at the coalface or the shoreline, uh, what is happening.

What the consequences are of this outbreak of algal bloom. I [00:01:00] hope you enjoy this conversation. I hope you find it, um, empowering. To step in and have a crack yourself. And we’ll finish off with the, the song, uh, that was actually nicely mentioned by the editor at large of the advertiser, Richard Pasco and five AA as well.

Uh, the song I Pen called While the Ocean Died, which is in relation to this event and performed by Steve Davis and the virtual Osos and in case. I don’t mention it in the interview. Uh, Joanna’s sending me a list of really helpful links and suggestions, which will be in the show notes for this episode, so you don’t have to go fishing around for them.

Oh, did I really say that?[00:02:00]

Caitlin Davis: In the spirit of Reconciliation, the Editor Show podcast acknowledges. The traditional custodians of country throughout South Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Steve Davis: Our guest in this episode of the Adelaide Show has spent the last, well, let’s say, [00:03:00] two and a half months doing something many of us have been avoiding, and that’s walking Glen Beach every single day. Uh, while the rest of Adelaide, generally speaking, has been steering clear of the shoreline, Joanna Williams has been down there with a ruler.

Her phone methodically documenting what this Lgal Bloom is actually doing to our coast. Now, she’s an occupational therapist by trade, but since late July, she’s inadvertently become one of South Australia’s most dedicated marine biologists identifying 113 different species, most of them dead. It’s a pretty grim citizen science project.

But somebody had to do it. And that person, one of them, there are many, is Joanna Williams. Joanna, welcome to the Adelaide Show.

Johanna Williams: Hi Steve. Thanks for having me.

Steve Davis: Now, Joanna, as the story goes, you got back from holidays around, you know, late July or so to [00:04:00] find IL covered in dead fish. Most of us at that point would’ve unpacked, had a cup of tea, or in my case, coffee, uh, maybe written an angry Facebook post, but you grabbed your ruler and decided to count everything.

What was it that made you think, this is how I’m spending my next few months?

Johanna Williams: I, I didn’t expect that I’d be here doing this now. I probably thought it would probably, you know. Go away. It would be a transient, short-term, transient event. But, um, nonetheless, the extent of the death, um, of all the, all the fish that were on the shore to see that was.

Like nothing I’d ever seen before. It just felt very surreal. It felt very worrying and concerning and I thought I need to do something. And not being a marine biologist, but I had just an ot, um, or [00:05:00] an ot. Um, I, um. I thought, what can I do? I heard that, um, people could upload, uh, their observations to I naturalists, and that that information would get into the hands of people who are qualified, marine biologists and or, uh, uh, scientific ecologist.

A lot of, yeah, well-qualified people use that information and data to help inform what’s going on and then formulate responses. To what’s going on or seek, um, you know, funding or government grants and so on. Um, because they’re better able to, I guess, describe the situation and combine that data with other information sources and research that they’re doing.

Phytoplankton counts and so on. Yeah. Yeah. And I think at the moment, yeah, there’s over a thousand people uploading observations onto the SA Marine Mortality [00:06:00] 2025 project, um, put together by, I think, um, uh, Janine Baker and Brad Martin.

Steve Davis: I get the sense that. You are really like the witnesses to what is happening so that just like a grain of sand in an oyster shell irritates to create the pearl.

It’s part of it is to keep the government aware that we are watching as just some small act that you can be doing to maintain a connection to hope. Is that a fair reading?

Johanna Williams: It is about helping to inform the government and making them aware of the extent of what’s going on. And I can speak for what I witness here at Glenelg, and many other people can speak to what they witness in other areas along the coastline in Kangaroo Island, you know, uh, [00:07:00] Langa, um, or Oranga or Lango or um, o Sullivan’s Beach.

There are lots of different people who go down and, and witness that, and I think. Um, it’s also because with the tides coming in a couple of times a day, what you see on one tide is very different to what you get on another tide. And what you see in one two hours, you know, can vary from two hours down the track.

So I think to just keep getting snapshots of what we’re seeing, um. You can see patterns as well. Yeah.

Steve Davis: Now, can you just walk us through what a typical morning or an afternoon, uh, looks like for you? Because I believe a lot of your work is happening in the same 500 ish meter stretch between P Street and the jetty.

Take us through that ritual. What happens? What do we see?

Johanna Williams: Okay, so, well, I never used to look at the tides, uh, but now when I go onto the bomb app, I’m, I’ve [00:08:00] scrolled down to when the high tides are. I personally like to get there just after high tide because it means the tides going out and we can see what’s fresh and left on the, the kind of fresh sea light of the, of the shore.

Um, and yeah, I’ll. Throw on my clothes, uh, beach clothes, lots of layers like, um, for going down the beach and, uh, and some good, a good pair of walking shoes.

Theme: Mm-hmm.

Johanna Williams: And I’ve got my bag, which is full of plastic bags in case I find, uh. Uh, fish that’s on the list of those that some of the scientists want collected.

Uh, that can include deep rare, deep sea water, fish, like long snout, boar fish, or, um, uh, warty prowl fish or. Devil, uh, blue Devil, uh, fish, they, some of these fish live to 20 or 30 years of age and they’re, [00:09:00] um, quite rare species. And often, um, yeah, scientists wouldn’t necessarily always come across them, even, uh, swimming alive in the ocean.

So to find them washed up on our shore is, um. I guess presents an opportunity for them to be able to, uh, collect them and do further research on them, um, age them. And I think, uh, the unis, uh, the researchers and the museums are working together to, I guess, uh, do genetic testing, toxicology assessment, um, aging, um, lots of different.

Things that they, they look at. Yeah.

Steve Davis: One aspect of this that I find absolutely fascinating is the diversity, the marine diversity that sadly and tragically we’re only discovering because of this. I’m seeing creatures. That I, I’d only ever seen in [00:10:00] Pixar animations Exotic fish.

Johanna Williams: Yes, I know. They’re just amazing.

The, the different Yeah. Species and the way that they look and

Steve Davis: Yeah. And even the ones you just mentioned just then. Who would’ve thought three or four months ago we’d been having this conversation? You probably didn’t even know those species existed yourself.

Johanna Williams: I certainly did not. No. The extent of my fishing vocabulary would’ve been going down the jetty and saying, oh, you caught a squid, and.

Oh, lovely fish and Oh, what size crab is that?

Steve Davis: Well, it’s, it is also a bit like the way, I mean, my own understanding of our marine ecosystem is like our approach to bananas or tomatoes. We typically have one or two varieties that we’re all used to, but there are thousands out there. It had no idea that’s, that’s the really.

One of the tragic things in, in my imagination and mind Yes. Is that [00:11:00] this, which has come about for all sorts of reasons ha has, is reaching its fingers deep into areas that his two have probably been getting a by very well. Thank you very much. That’s, it’s that crossing over that to me just cuts to my heart.

Johanna Williams: Yeah. Um, I’m just looking at the sa Marine Mortality Events 2025 on iNaturalist. And, um, there is a, as I said, over a thousand people that have been taking observations. There’s over, there’s almost 71,000 observations, but that figure represents numbers in the millions and millions of actual deaths because I guess.

In one observation, you might get a number of different species. Um, and also often it’s, uh, mainly larger creatures. Like when I say larger creatures, it might be fish that you can see that are, you know, probably at least 10 centimeters in length or something. But in reality, we’re getting much [00:12:00] smaller. Uh, deaths of like small prawns or small shellfish that are like maybe the size of your fingernail and that tend to camouflage.

So you’ll see tiny. Uh, little get crabs, little shrimps, um, uh, kittens, um, spindle shells, hermit crabs. Um, and also we are losing seagrasses. Um, lots of different types of seagrasses and I’m not familiar with all the different names, but just so many different species and it’s also affecting, um, like avian life.

Um, so we’re seeing. Things like penguins and, uh, blackface, comran and, um, silver gulls being affected. I’ve even, um, found two, uh, galas on different occasions and, um, on the Glen El Beach and, uh, my [00:13:00] friend, uh, Susan Rio, who often goes down the beach also and takes, um, photographs. Um. We, uh, she found a, um, silver gull that had been, uh, it was paralyzed and we took it to the vet, and the vet was able to say it hadn’t, or it didn’t appear to have, uh, experienced trauma or have an injury.

And at the most likely explanation was probably some kind of toxic effect from. Associated with the um, aga bloom. A lot of the girls now and the birds sit along the shoreline and wait for the fish or even the worms. There’s a lot of worm deaths as well. Um, so they just wait and it’s kind of easy pickings for them.

They can, you know, they don’t have to go searching the foods just kind of washing up, but they don’t know that that food is actually toxic and harmful.

Steve Davis: It’s so worrying ’cause [00:14:00] we are getting messages that you should still be eating the fish and here they are. But I guess we are gonna be more discerning.

And if it’s gone through commercial channels, then obviously there’d be some sort of grading system, uh, at work. But you mentioned 71 odd thousand observations. Uh, I believe at last count I saw about 1,003 were your yours. Um. Or probably even way more than that now,

Johanna Williams: actually, I think Steve, um, I’ve just had a look yesterday and I’ve gone over, I’ve got over 10,000 observations that’s from Glenelg and that’s really not a reflection that Glenelg iss any, uh, you know, worse off than the other places.

It’s just probably more a reflection and I’m a bit over the top with photographing. I think actually other areas have been more affected, although I can’t, you know, say for certain ’cause I’m not out there. But yeah,

Steve Davis: so, so on that. You mentioned, uh, little prawns, et cetera, that are gonna be tiny, et cetera.

Mm-hmm. What’s the [00:15:00] triage system that, is there a triage system you use or if you actually see something, you make sure it’s captured in some way, shape, or form?

Johanna Williams: I try to allow myself a certain amount of time. Um, so I, uh, ha I capture what I can in that amount of time and probably I get about anywhere between four and 500 photos per day.

But some of those are multiple photos of the same, um, same, um. Uh, Marine, like at the same fish or something, uh, sort them all out. Um, my method, I think people have different methods and different ways of working. So I know someone, uh, Adelaide Pros 35 is, is what is called on, um, iNaturalist who. Cycles along the beach often once a week, and we’ll kind of get a snapshot of what’s going on along the beaches.

And then, um, my friend Sue is very much interested in birds, but she also tries to capture messages that she can make [00:16:00] a a point about, you know, whether it’s to be, to do with the litter and environmental or, uh, degradation of the environment. Um, my. My focus has been trying to capture as many as I can to reflect what’s actually washing up, uh, and the numbers.

And I can’t collect all of them because it just never, not enough capacity to do that. So I try to get just as many photos of generally what the themes are for that day. So if it’s leather jackets, ’cause they, they do come up in, in, um. Uh, patterns, I guess. So one day it might be a lot of leather jackets, another day it might be a lot of abalone.

This week we’ve had a lot of worms. Some weeks we’ve had lots of starfish. Um, so it’s always, you never know what’s gonna wash up. Uh, other times it’s been western strip grunters. Um, and then you just come across really surprising things that you weren’t expecting, like a [00:17:00] bird or something like that. Yeah.

Steve Davis: What’s been the most confronting thing you’ve found?

Johanna Williams: Uh, oh gosh. Uh, the most confronting thing I found was a large globe fish. So the globe fish was probably about, I don’t know, 30 centimeters in length and probably about, uh, 20 centimeters diameter. And it had been left, um, up on the beach, but it was still alive and it was gasping for breath and it, its eyes were looking like his, you could see the muscles in its eyes.

It was looking at me and it was gasping for breath. And I don’t know if you know what a glow fish is, but they’re very spiky and I, they’re. You don’t wanna touch their thorns. I think that can be quite harmful, uh, to us as humans, um, if they spike you. And, um, I didn’t know what to do. It felt quite helpless, so I was running backwards and forwards from the.[00:18:00]

Grabbing water from the sea and just kind of pouring it over this fish. But it’s always a question of what is the right thing to do because there’s no clear guidelines or answers. Uh, to me, a fish dying out in the sun on the sand, I imagine is. Quite painful. And so it is often if I find something that that’s live, I’ll try to use my tongs and put it back in the water and think it is probably nicer to die in the water than on the land.

But some people would say that’s prolonging its death by putting it back in the water. So, uh, I don’t think there’s any. Clear consensus about what to do. But yeah. Um, this fish probably died about 10 minutes afterwards, so it was, it was alive for a while before I found it, and then it was alive for a while when I was with it.

But my friend Sue, found a si had a similar experience, but the fish she found, um, it was the same kind of fish, same size, but it, [00:19:00] uh, was alive, um, and suffering for about 45 minutes on the beach. Um. And it’s pretty distressing. Yeah. And trying to convey that to people as well in a sensitive way that there’s stuff washing up that’s alive.

Um, and sometimes it’ll die quickly, but sometimes they don’t. They like the seagull was paralyzed kind of from the neck down. And it was there for a couple of hours while we were trying to work out could someone collect it, making phone calls to people to find out what to do. And after Sue and I making several phone calls, then we worked out to take it to the Glenelg Vet.

But, um, otherwise it would’ve been, you know, that seagull would’ve been in the sun on a hot day. Dehydrated and the its flock, were also making a flurry around it, and [00:20:00] that’s what caught sue’s attention was the flock kind of gathering around one

Steve Davis: of

Johanna Williams: its

Steve Davis: own and, and not necessarily heartening because birds can then pack at the.

The weak one too, which is sad. Oh yeah. Yeah. Interestingly, I remember reading some work by Robert Cialdini many years ago on the Psychology of Persuasion, and he talked about a thing called the the bystander effect, where his advice is if you are choking and you need some help, most people, if there’s a crowd, will think, oh, someone else will help it.

What you should do is point to someone and say, please help me, and that springs them into action. There’s a couple of layers to this. There’s, there is obviously life still going on and finding a way to ignorantly, blissfully sort of walk past, but also I think about that globe fish and the eye contact with you.

That’s got to, that’s gotta [00:21:00] have an effect. So what are you doing? I imagine there’s trauma. By you through this. I was

Johanna Williams: talking to the fish. I probably looked quite crazy. I felt like the fish was actually trying to talk to me because the way its eyes were actually following me and you could see, I mean, it didn’t have eyebrows, but the eye muscles were like, yeah, really gazing and tracking me.

And, um, I don’t know what fish can hear and I know that, but I was just saying, I’m here. I can see that this is pretty awful. You’re suffering. Um, I’m gonna get some water. I’m gonna pour some water over you. Um,

Steve Davis: but what about day after day for yourself and not just you, other citizen scientists who are doing this.

Is there any advice or any thought, what are you doing to look after yourself emotionally?

Johanna Williams: That’s a really good question. I think, um, I. I talk to, I’ve got a friend out on the beach, Sue. Uh, and we often talk a lot about what we, uh, [00:22:00] find and what we see. And that is a bit like debriefing. And I do, um, sometimes yeah, debrief with, um, Brett when I get home.

Um,

Steve Davis: Britt’s your partner, your husband.

Johanna Williams: Yes, that’s right. Yeah. And um, I think also I try to, as much as I can sensitively put stuff on social media, but that it is tricky as it’s a tricky space that I’m not Yeah. Still learning to navigate.

Steve Davis: Yes, yes. Did you know that there was this network of citizen scientists before this all happened?

Johanna Williams: No. In fact, when someone called me a citizen scientist, I think it was a journalist, when I first heard her and I thought, what do they mean citizen scientist? I’m an occupational therapist, and Brett, my partner, was saying, you’re not a citizen scientist. You’re an actual scientist. Don’t they know you’ve got a degree in science?

And I was, I was like, yeah, that’s right. I am a [00:23:00] scientist. But I’ve since learned to embrace, um, yeah, this term citizen scientist. Um, I didn’t really know much about iNaturalist apart from, um, the stories with Erin Patterson and the mushroom stories and knowing that that’s where she found the, the mushrooms.

But, um, yeah, I. I started using iNaturalist after reading about it in the paper and in relation to the algal bloom. And it’s amazing. And citizen scientists are just incredible people who volunteer a lot of time. They’re very dedicated, uh, especially, yeah, lots of people I’ve met through, um, the SA Marine Mortality event, uh, I’ve connected with.

People that just live around the corner from me who I’ve never kind of spoken to before. We’ve, um, I think, uh, you were saying about how do I cope, I’ve actually developed a really strong [00:24:00] network of friends in, in this, and we’ve kind of bonded over this, I guess, I don’t know, journey that we’re on. Um, and I’ve also connected with people from the uni, so it’s been really helpful because.

It’s increased my understanding and awareness and that is quite empowering and also turning that kind of despair and hopelessness into, you know, kind of channeling that energy into. Just, um, collecting the data and sharing it and, and, um, learning more from that. Um, one of the things that I’ve done is gone to, I think, Aus Fish, um, put on workshops to make, um.

Little oyster beds or oyster wind chimes. And these are like, um, it’s a bit crafty actually, which suits me down to a t being an ot. Um, you, yeah. You make these, [00:25:00] um, oyster. Uh, like string oysters on strings that they then, um, tie like, like hook on to, I guess pillars or different structures in the sea. And then baby, um, flat oysters will make their homes there and that then, um, you know, it takes a number of years for these.

Uh, little habitats to establish, but once the oysters are there, the oysters will filter the water and they’ll clean quite a lot of water. And then you’ll see, um, a little ecology, I guess, of growth with different fish coming along and different sea grasses growing, and it has like a, a ripple domino effect in a, a really positive way for the environment.

Steve Davis: I saw that you were. On shared, if you like, uh, something on social media today at the time of recording about those sea grasses, which another, this is another aspect. We talked about fish. We’ve talked about birds. [00:26:00] They’re sea grasses, which is doing god’s own work, if you like. Um, often unrecognized by us.

And it mentions something about if you see some, you can grab it, pop it in a bucket to keep it going, and then drop it where you see a healthy. Group or reef area of of sea grasses so it can grow. Did I get that right? Is that part of the challenge?

Johanna Williams: Yes, that is right. Um, I did read that and I thought that looked very interesting and I’d heard about collecting seagrasses and I’m not quite sure exactly what you do, but it did sound like if you find these, you can try and disperse them in areas where they might take hold.

Steve Davis: Yes.

Johanna Williams: Yeah.

Steve Davis: Now you did use the term ripple effect earlier and mm-hmm. Obviously we’re talking about the environmental devastation at the moment. But have you, what are your observations of the ripple effects on land? We’ve got the, or the commercial fishing industry, which is partly on water, partly on land.

You’ve got [00:27:00] cafes along the Glen Oak foreshore tourism as just a local who’s there walking those streets. Have you noticed, and unfortunately, apart from the algal bloom on the. Uh, west, there is all the jetty road disruptions with tram on the east, so it’s a, it’s a double whammy at the moment, but what are you seeing that as, that we might think are ripple effects from the algal bloom?

Johanna Williams: I think we’re seeing less people on the beach. Less, um, less people walking their dogs. Probably less people just, you know, like on a one day you’d normally see quite a lot of people downing Nel. Um, but you are not, I’m not seeing. Large numbers of people. Uh, still people go down to watch the sunsets, but, um, maybe some people are tourists as well and staying in the hotels nearby.

But certainly the streets, uh, jetty Road is very quiet. Um, you don’t, I don’t see the amount of foot traffic that, you know, you typically see, uh, [00:28:00] because. With the, um, the closing of Jetty Road, it’s made access, you know, even for cars moving, uh, say North South and that direction, it’s really tricky. Um. And the, the footpaths are very narrow.

So even if you wanna take a leisurely stroll, it’s hard to be leisurely because you’ll be blocking the path some oncoming. And while people are really polite and more than happy to stand aside, it’s not the same kind of shopping experience when you can’t. Um. Can’t take your time. And, um, and you’ve got these rickety old path, well, not old, but they’re, they’re rickety, kind of makeshift wooden paths that are very narrow.

And I think it’s hard if you’ve got a wheelchair or a pram or a walking frame, the surface is, um, it’s not completely stable. It spots some movement in it and it, [00:29:00] and it, it’s narrow in spots. So those. When you get to a shop entrance, it widens out, but there’s that, um, it can get congested and very hard.

And a number of, um, cafes have closed down as well. Not, I shouldn’t say cafes. A number of businesses have closed down, like I think a latte has closed down. And, um, I heard, uh,

Steve Davis: fruit, uh, boost juice as well in drawing towards a clothes shortly. Um, I wanna mention clothes. A uh, you said you would rug up to go down to the beach.

Lots of different layers. Now, my first. Thought because I had forgotten it was winter. ’cause it’s been so unseasonably warm. That was actually too. Ensure minimal skin contact between your skin and anything that could be toxic. Is that part of it? And is there anything you’d have to do to wash your clothes safely or am I being alarmist and even thinking in those terms?

Johanna Williams: No, I certainly have to wash my clothes ’cause I can come home really smelly just from being out in the air. [00:30:00] Um, I think some days are worse than others. I certainly, um, myself, I wear a P 95 mask. Okay, because I do cough. When I breathe in the air, but it’s only while I’m there. Um, and I do, I get an aftertaste from the algae that can last, I dunno, 24 to 30, 48 hours just from breathing it in.

So I like to wear mask, so I don’t experience those symptoms. Um, other people in my family have worse side effects or worse effects than me. I’m probably the mildest, you know, have the mildest. Um. Symptoms. Um, yeah, so I wear gloves and I use tongs. Um, there are some fish that are, you know, venomous. They have venomous spines.

And, um, I only recently, and Steve, you probably know this, but I didn’t, but mone cones, uh, to, uh. MOUs, I [00:31:00]

Steve Davis: dunno if, well, I wasn’t even sure there were things called mone. So,

Johanna Williams: well, there are beautiful, these beautiful shells that I’ve been handling. Um,

Steve Davis: yeah,

Johanna Williams: just thinking pretty shells. Uh, and then I found out that they’re actually venomous.

Um, so now I’m much more, I’m much more, yeah. Uh, yeah, careful around them. Um, but I do, I mean, I think that’s the other thing about the government messaging is that we’re getting a lot of stuff washing up on the foreshore and it is really fascinating to be able to see all these species and different things that you wouldn’t normally be able to see.

Um, but there’s lots of, uh, beautiful shellfish that are washing up and often people are out there collecting shells. Sometimes I just, yeah. Gotta be careful what, what’s in the shell. There could be a hermit crab in that shell or, um, you know, an mone cone. Um,

Steve Davis: goodness. I’m gonna have to go back and watch some of my, uh, daughter’s old Auts episodes.

Oh, yeah.

Johanna Williams: I found this book fantastic.

Steve Davis: An [00:32:00] underwater guide Who, who published that?

Johanna Williams: Yeah. Janine Baker, who’s a marine ecologist and educator made this. Hmm.

Steve Davis: And did you get that from me? Is

Johanna Williams: amazing. I got this from, would you believe it? Um. Sport Adelaide Environment Center. And that’s the place that I went to make the oyster chimes.

Oh, okay.

Theme: With

Johanna Williams: Brad Martin from Aus Fish. And Maureen. Janine, I always go to call her Marine Janine, ’cause that’s her, her name on iNaturalist. But Janet, Janine Baker is the author of this and, uh, it’s got great, um, pictures including Steve. Mm-hmm. For your benefit.

Steve Davis: Yes. Thank you. Now I know what you’re talking about.

Never seen one in real life, but uh, now I know to avoid it. I’m down to

Johanna Williams: Lionel. Yes. I’ll show you around. Sure. You’re cute.

Steve Davis: What I will ask, if you don’t mind, is to flick me through once we finish this interview, which is shortly a list of important links that you think people should know [00:33:00] about, uh, if you don’t mind to direct them.

Yeah. Across the tracks that you’ve already, you know, patterned through for us, the whole experience this year of becoming an accidental media figure and environmental advocate, what’s that been like?

Johanna Williams: It’s, yeah, it’s been a bit surreal, bit extraordinary, but it’s also been, um, I don’t know, I guess because, uh, a lot of the, uh, media stuff had kind of happened incidentally, and so it was just like having a conversation and um, it was quite pleasant in terms of.

The way that the journalists have written things up and brought this thing to life in a way that I could never have done just by being out there collecting and uploading. So I just hope that, you know, the things that I say do the topic and the, the cause justice.

Steve Davis: Yeah. What happens when or if the bloom clears?

Will you keep monitoring?

Johanna Williams: Uh, [00:34:00] no, I don’t think so. I will be going down there and I’ll be just. I’m not wearing a mask, I’ll be breathing in the air. Is that’s what I normally used to do, was just go down there and I used to take deep breaths. It was my, my way of meditating and re relaxing after work and to kind of feel like I was embracing nature.

Um, instead of trying to keep myself separated from nature. If I’m not, yeah. Breathing it in.

Steve Davis: Yeah. Alright. Look, before I ask you my very last question, I will just note. Uh, dear listener that the reason I wanted to talk to Joanna is that’s what we do here on the Adelaide Show. Have a chat with South Aussies who are passionately engaged in some sort of endeavor, and that’s what she’s at the moment.

The old journalist in me might have wanted the chief scientist or somewhere else on, but the stories that I’ve seen on A, B, C and in daily just have suggested to me that. They’re on a very tight leash with the PR spinners. And the moment any little thing happens that’s a little bit off key, it’s swamped and retractions have to [00:35:00] happen.

It’s, it just doesn’t seem conducive to a clear and open, uh, conversation, uh, to expose vulnerability and really just level. And, you know, that’s, that’s the political system. We’re at the moment, it’s nothing against the scientist. It’s, it’s the ecosystem in which. That scientist has to swim and it has its own toxic blooms.

So that’s the reason why we are just looking at this from the human perspective of a fellow citizen. And on that note, Joanna, if someone who hears this wants to contribute either at Glenelg or their local beach, what would you suggest they could do that would feel be helpful to the overall enterprise?

Johanna Williams: I think even just doing what I’m doing. Um, but there’s lots of different ways people can get involved. So you can just, uh, take photos and upload them to, I naturalists. Some people get out their microscopes and try to identify the, as a dino flagellates, which are [00:36:00] ous species, uh, as a type of dinoflagellates, so you can actually look at what’s in the water and what concentrations they’re at.

Um, I know they need help uploading photos. Um, that people have taken and haven’t been able to, for different reasons, get uploaded onto the iNaturalist. But if you go onto the, uh, join up with the Ma sa uh, Marine Mortality Project 2025. On in there, you’ll find information that, uh, where you can, uh, contact Janine Baker and Janine.

Can link you in with, uh, lots of other things that are going on, including like I’ve been collecting some of the fish that get picked up by the uni on their weekly round.

Steve Davis: Wow. Joanna Williams, thank you very much for not only being on the Adelaide show, but for doing what you’re doing to be our witness in your neck of the woods.

Thank you.

Johanna Williams: Thank you, Steve, for having [00:37:00] me and for all your wonderful questions and I’ve really enjoyed the conversation. I’m glad we’ve made the time to do it.

Theme: And now it’s time for the musical pilgrimage.

Steve Davis: In the musical pilgrimage. I’m finishing with another song by Steve Davis and the Virtual Osos, and this is called When the Ocean Died, which has been my reflection on this whole scenario with the algal bloom. Uh, Joanna Williams hasn’t quite left yet, and the reason I didn’t let you leave Joanna, is it was your work.

That because we’re, you know, friends and in the same circles really got through my defenses and really, uh, made me aware at the ground level or sea level, uh, uh, cost of this whole thing. So thank you for that.

Johanna Williams: Thank you for helping in your way with your talent. [00:38:00]

Steve Davis: Well, in, in, in my mind, hearing the, the bits and bit bobs, I’m not a hundred percent convinced that the, um, desalination plant is the arch rival here.

I think there’s all sorts of different opinions floating around. It seems like a whole lot came down the river Murray from the, the big flooding events that we had and that that has made its way through. But I’m not sure anyone really knows a hundred percent what’s going on. It has not been helped by the warm weather.

Um,

Johanna Williams: and there’s a, is it a, a heat wave in the sea?

Steve Davis: Well, and that’s always going to be a wild card in the mix. So it’s really, it’s a tragedy. We are watching unfold. And perhaps one way of dealing with that is being proactive and to, to monitor and learn in the hope that nature gives us a pass somehow so that we can regroup and do things better and perhaps respond a little faster next time.

You have told me that you’ve, you kind of like this song. Is any particular aspect of it that [00:39:00] you, that you’d like?

Johanna Williams: I find it like an earworm, but not an annoying one. I will sing it over and over and over again when I hear it and, and because I’m a little bit obsessed with the fish at the moment. Uh, I will, I just love to listen to the song from the beginning to the end.

And when you ask. Me, like how do I look after my mental health? I think sometimes expressing it in song or in poems and I have written poems that I’ve kept to myself or just shared, you know, little, um, songs that I’ve sung to use, which I’d never share publicly, but to help sometimes just vent and to, yeah, get some of those feelings out.

’cause sometimes suppressing the feelings can make it worse, but being able to get it out and share it with someone does help to. Process what’s going on a bit more or, yeah. Yeah.

Steve Davis: I certainly find songwriting is how I think out loud to process things, and the bridge in this song is a reflection on the fact that the leader, at any [00:40:00] time when something happens, it’s like musical chairs or the music stops for whatever’s about what’s causing this, of which there’ll be multiple causes.

I think there’s a long chain of. Shortcuts and shortcomings that have, have weakened us to be more vulnerable to this situation. And then to have the heat wave and the sea and the other events,

Johanna Williams: I think there’s been, we’ve destroyed a lot of our natural reef, um, through like trolling and and such. So, um, we don’t have, um, you know, our storm water system and drainage leaves a lot to be desired.

Um, we can be engaging in better. Farming practices, which I know that a lot of farmers are doing. But um, yeah, I know that, um, Andrew Lake was talking about the use of legumes as kind of putting nitrogen into the soil as a way of, um. You know, as, as opposed to, um, other [00:41:00] fertilizers that kind of don’t get processed effectively and end up in the, in the rivers.

Um, and, and these, uh, this nitrogen is like a fuel for the algae. And when it gets stirred up, it. Can perpetuate the problem and create these blooms.

Steve Davis: Yeah. Then when there’s a nice big flood that flushes it all out to sea, its speed. I guess there’s our Christmas present that we didn’t want.

Johanna Williams: Yes. Merry Christmas.

Steve Davis: On that note, uh, here is while the ocean died,

Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: there was a flood upstream. It was a lot of rain. Farmers rejoice. It eased a lot of pain. By the time the water made it to the mouth fishers. It was poisoning the south. [00:42:00] It was unusually warm

as we hit the beach. Surfers rejoiced as they paddled out, but then they saw the drown in fish.

The ocean cursed. It was not. Not what anyone would wish you told us. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. It’s just alga blue. Just alga blue. It’s a natural thing. Natural thing. It’ll be gone soon. Gone soon. We don’t have gu. We don’t have gu. So we can’t drown. We can’t drown. Keep eating fish. Keep eating fish while.

They’re still around. [00:43:00] Still around. But if you walk the beach, walk the beach. Careful where you tread. Where you tread. Stepping over sea life. Sea life, that’s washed up, dead wash up. You watched it begin. Watched it begin. So the ho tight ho your sin, your.

That you hid while the ocean died.

There was a whale up turn. There were floating.

Sharks, rejoice. It was a banquet, sir, to walk along the shore. You had to dodge the death [00:44:00] council’s curves. It meant more work for them

with side. Humans cursed. They were clearly not a, when the tourists ran and the trade left town, humans asked, we live on land. How can we drown? You told us. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. It’s just.

It’s a natural thing. Natural thing. It’ll be gone soon. Gone soon. We don’t have guilt. We don’t have guilt. So we can’t drown. We [00:45:00] can’t drown. Keep beating fish. Keep beating fish while they’re still around. Still around, but have you walked the beach? Walk the beach. Careful where you tread. Stepping over. See life.

See life that’s washed up dead. Wash up dead. You watched a begin. Watched it begin. Saw the warning tide. So your sin on your sin

that you hid while the ocean died.

A leader. Never gets to choose when they’ll get put to the test, will they stay upon the sand or will they [00:46:00] wait up to their chest? How long can you,

how long can you.

Is dead.

You told us. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. It’s just go bloom, just blue. It’s a natural thing. Natural thing. It will be [00:47:00] gone soon. Gone soon. We don’t have guilt. We don’t have guilt, so we can’t drown. We can’t drown. Fish, sheep, feet and fish while they’re still around. Still around. But if you walk the beach, walk the beach.

Careful where you tread. Where you tread. Stepping over sea life. Sea life. That’s wash. Dead wash up dead. You watched it begin. Watched it begin. So the warning, warning time. So your sin, own your sin

that you hear

while the ocean died.

Steve Davis: That’s while the ocean died. Steve [00:48:00] Davis and the virtual Osos, Joanna Williams. Thank you again for being part of the Adelaide Show.

Johanna Williams: You’re welcome. Thank you, Steve,

Steve Davis: and until next episode, it’s goodnight from me. Goodnight Don.

AJ Davis: The Adelaide Show Podcast is produced by my dad, Steve Davis. If you want to start a podcast or get some help producing creative content.

Talk to him. Visit steve davis.com au. Thanks, aj. I’m Caitlyn Davis and I agree with everything my sister said, but there’s one more thing to say. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating or a review ’cause that will make my dad really happy. Oh, and one more thing. If you really, really liked it, please help a friend put the Adelaide Show on their phone.

Thanks for listening.

Buzz Buzz [00:49:00]

Theme: Adela Adelaide.

The other.