Pink salt ponds are the new attraction for San José locals and visitors. This rose-colored body of water is found at Alviso Marina County Park.
“There is bacteria that grows in the salt ponds and that bacteria creates a pink hue that you see,” San José State University marine biology assistant professor, Maya deVries, said.
DeVries said the ponds have a higher concentration of salt in the late summer and early fall because of warmer weather conditions.
“It's been really warm here all summer and there's been a lot of evaporation all summer, so now is kind of the height of this pink bacteria and the salt’s warming,” deVries said.
SJSU microbiology professor Cleber Ouverney said he is not sure whether these pink ponds are a result of climate change.
“It's not necessarily too difficult to make the leap into climate change because . . . higher temperatures lead to higher evaporation [and] higher temperatures in the water,” Ouverney said. “I don't know if (it) is true that the San Francisco Bay water temperatures (are) going up.”
Ouverney said the pink water is safe to touch, but he would not advise anyone to drink it.
“Animals may fall in there and deteriorate because they cannot survive for one reason or another,” Ouverney said. “That can generate a bunch of other microbes and contamination that you don't want to be exposed to.”
What looked like mountains of salt rocks appeared lining up across the water, resembling smaller versions of the ice glaciers found in the Antarctic.
However, deVries said they were not mountains but layers of salt and brine on the water’s surface formed by evaporation on the banks.
Many sightseers took photos at the park capturing the pink water and “mountains of salt rocks.”
SJSU studio practices junior Yilin Yu visited the ponds several times and she did not appreciate when people went inside the water.
“Personally, I don’t dare to touch beautiful things because I worry about causing irreversible damage to them,” Yu said. “They are always fragile, especially the natural environment.”
Yu said the pink ponds inspired her to go back and take photos of clients when she started doing commercial photography.
“When I first saw it, I felt it was new and interesting because I had never seen it before,” Yu said.
Photographer Winston Lai also took photos at the park for his business. He specializes in portrait and lifestyle photography. Lai took photos of his friend, Lauren Outhabong, at the pond on Monday.
“I never heard of this spot prior to this weekend,” Lai said. “I've lived in the Bay Area my whole life and never knew we had salt lakes around us so I figured it would be a cool spot to check out.”
Lai said he decided to have a photoshoot at Alviso after Outhabong mentioned the pond was pink.
Park visitor David Li said he also grew up in the Bay Area. He said he knew about Alviso Marina County Park, but did not know the pond turned pink.
“It's very memorable,” Li said. “You can take a lot of great pictures, enjoy this with friends and family and show to social media that you’ve been to a sight that’s popular.”
Industrial and systems engineering junior Sahil Shah said he first heard about the pink ponds from an Instagram reel.
“(I thought) hey, I’ve been there before, but I didn’t know they turned pink until I saw that video,” Shah said.
Shah said he comes to the park often because it’s not too far from home and participates in many of the activities the park offers.
Alviso’s park provides the local community with outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and bird-watching according to the Santa Clara County Parks website.
Shah said he bikes a couple times a week and occasionally chooses Alviso park because it’s more convenient.
“After work, if I don't want to go up into the hills to go mountain biking. It's a nice place where it still feels disconnected from things,” Shah said.
