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Particulateorganic material produced by bubbling air through filtered seawater was fed to cultures of the brine shrimp Artemia salina Linnaeus.Growth rate of Artemia fed on organic particles was slower than that of Artemia fed on dried yeast. Growth of starved animals was significantly less than particle-fed animals; starved animals were dead by the fifth or eighth day after hatching.The possible importance of organic particles produced by wave-induced bubbles at sea is discussed.

Bubbles in the sea surf adsorb and carry viruses to the surface where they are propelled into the air on tiny jets of seawater when the bubble bursts. The ejected jets become tiny drops of aerosol. The buble adsorption and virus concentration in the surf is analagous to industrial bubble levitation processes that concentrate metallic ores, enzymes, and finely divided organic crystals. Bubble levitation of viruses delibrately injected into the surf produced 200 times more virus per milliliter in the aerosol than were present in samples from the surf. Some aerosol drops created by the surf and carried by the wind fall out on the beach. The frequency of virus-bearing drops, that is, the number of plaques on seeded plates exposed on the beach, decreased exponentially with the distance downwind from the surf.

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