File:Phytoplankton bloom off the Mid-Atlantic (MODIS 2015-06-05).jpg

English: Patches of milky turquoise stained the waters of the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late May, 2015. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA�s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on May 31.

On that day, lines of small clouds hang over the greening land of New Jersey (north) and the Delmarva Peninsula, land shared between Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The waters of the Delaware Bay (north) and the Chesapeake Bay appear dull with sediment and phytoplankton. The largest phytoplankton bloom floats in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, but swirls of color can be seen in almost all the ocean waters.

Large phytoplankton blooms are common in this region each spring, often coinciding � perhaps incidentally � with the movement of horseshoe crabs onto the beaches of the region in a massive spring breeding ritual, and with the stop-over of tens of thousands of migrating shorebirds which feed on the crab eggs. Springtime on and near the shores of the Mid-Atlantic is a dynamic, vital season.