Update: The SA woman who went viral for swimming in 'sewage water'
"I went viral for allegedly swimming in sewerage waters at a Cape Town beach..."
Social media influencer and professional kite surfer, Michelle Sky Hayward, recently went viral after she went swimming in what appeared to be sewage water at a Cape Town beach.
The mom and businesswoman, who enjoys a swim now and then, made international headlines when she posted a video of herself immersed in foamy water.
The water looked brown and murky, and many social media users were sure she was swimming in 'sewage-infested water'.
Hayward, who is also an ambassador for GoPro South Africa, was shocked when she saw the comments and feared what people were saying online.
In a follow-up video, Hayward explained that the foamy water wasn't sewage water but actually sea foam.
Seafoam is a mixture of proteins, fats, salts, and decaying algae created by wind and waves shaking the ocean. It forms when dissolved organic matter from the sea is agitated by the wind and the waves.
The Ocean Service website explains: "Seawater contains dissolved salts, proteins, fats, dead algae, detergents and other pollutants, and other bits and pieces of organic and artificial matter. If you shake this glass of ocean water vigorously, small bubbles will form on the surface of the liquid.
Sea foam forms this way - but on a much grander scale - when the ocean is agitated by wind and waves. Each coastal region has differing conditions governing the formation of sea foams."
Check out the video below where she responded to the viral video, courtesy of Instagram.
Here, she spoke about how many people thought she was a tourist, unknowingly swimming in the sewage-infested beach water.
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It's easy to make assumptions when you don't know the truth behind what the ocean is capable of. Naturally, many people connected the dots by assuming that the foam was related to E. coli, but it seems the sea is more complex than many of us realise.
Check out the video Hayward posted in response to the comments, courtesy of Instagram.
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Image Courtesy of Instagram