I have been staying away from the beaches on the Encounter Coast during at the autumn and winter months due to the existence of the toxic micro algae bloom --- Karenia mikimotoi --- that is caused by marine heating. Karenia mikimotoi is a type of plankton that is toxic because it sucks the oxygen out of the water as it dies and decomposes, effectively suffocating marine life.
The algae has spread from the Coorong to the York Peninsula in South Australia and it has resulted in lot of marine life dying and devastated the Great Southern Reef.
It is only in July, after the algae bloom had broken up along the Encounter Coast from the winter storms, that I returned to walking amongst the ephemeral seaweed on the beach on an early morning poodlewalk. This part of the littoral zone is ever-changing from day to day -- it really is a world of flux.
It is now possible to walk the beaches around the Victor Harbor township without the micro algae in the air being an irritant to eyes and lungs and causing continual coughing.
However, it is quite possible that the algae will hang on during the winter months and reappear next summer, if the water in the Gulf of St Vincent and Adelaide's rivers and waters are not flushed out with the stormy seas during the 2025 winter.