The yellow tinting in ocean water has been identified by the Tanana Valley Clinic as spruce pollen, but it remains to be seen why the pollen counts are so high this year.

Ocean water may be tinted yellow from pollen.

Spruce rust (Chrysomyxa ledicola) fungal spores found along the banks on the Kuskokwim River

Last month a mysterious orange film ("goo" in the media vernacular) washed up on the shores of a northwest Alaskan village called Kivalina. An orange powder seems an odd product for the drying of crustacean eggs, but could make perfect sense for fungi -- specifically, the rust fungi.