That stuff in Puget Sound is not red tide

Something goopy and colorful is showing up in the water near Puget Sound beaches.

Callers from Alki to Edmonds to Sinclair Inlet are reporting the growth to the state Department of Ecology.

“They’re telling us that they’re seeing Campbell’s tomato soup-colored growth in the water and sometimes they don’t know what it is and they say: ‘we think there may have been a paint or oil spill,’ ” said Curt Hart, spokesman for the Ecology Dept.

He said it’s actually a common, micro-organism, a harmless type of plankton bloom that shows up this time of year.

“This happens every year and this year it has just been a little earlier because we’ve had the nice, warm weather,” explained Hart. He emphasized the blooms are not so-called “red tide” or paralytic shellfish poisoning.