The third annual Sarasota Bay Scallop Count, organized by Sarasota Bay Watch, is complete and the results are in. They aren’t good – The total number of scallops found: 0. The Great Bay Scallop Count, organized by Tampa Bay Watch also turned up disappointing number of scallops: 32.
“Water Quality” is to blame by both organizations A very vague term. It could be almost anything. Red tide has been certainly been part of the decline. But there were very little red tide blooms last year and the number of scallops went from 674 in 2009 to only 32 this year for Tampa Bay. When a red tide does come through it has a 100% mortality rate on scallops and other filter feeders.
Without more research it looks like it’s just going to remain a mystery as to what’s up with the scallops.
Just published in the journal, Aquatic Toxicology, is a study by Dong-Ha Nam and colleagues on the effects of brevetoxins on sharks. Brevetoxins are the toxins that are released by organisms like Karenia Brevis, the organism that is behind Florida Red Tide. The conclusion? Brevetoxins modify the neurochemistry of shark brains, making them over-excited and even killing them.
The authors of this study focused on lemon sharks entirely, they believe however that this research applies to all sharks.
Today officials are investigating a “massive” fish kill in Delaware Bay NJ. Tens of thousands of Menhaden (a type of herring used for fish oil and bait), have been washing ashore in Cape May NJ. Preliminary suspects are not red tide or any other toxic algal bloom.
New Jersey’s State Department of Environmental Protection indicates the die-off seems to affect only the menhaden. The agency is still assessing the extent of the kill, but says the amount of dead fish is particularly large in Middle Township. New Jersey officials are examining oxygen levels in the water and evidently the U.S. EPA is working on this too. They took samples and examined them for toxic phytoplankton, these tests were “negative”.
Consistent increases in water pollution and water temperatures are causing an increasing amount of Algae blooms in coastal waters of Virginia. Chris Moore, a scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also says the algae are especially plentiful in lower Chesapeake Bay bay and in the Hampton Roads area. Further Mr. Moore is quoted as saying:
“Excess nutrients have basically fueled this type of phenomenon so that the plants are out there in levels and in numbers much higher than we would see in a normal, natural environment.”
Mr. Moore says the areas have been afflicted with Dead zones, or areas with no oxygen in the water caused by the decay of large amounts algae. This has led to fish kills, crab jubilees (which sound fun but are not, here’s some pictures of crabs basically “beaching” themselves), and conditions that don’t kill outright but cause wildlife that can, to move out of the area.
Mr Moore gives a nice summary answer to the question whether this natural. He says the algae itself is natural but the increased intensity, size and frequency of the algae bloom is caused by water pollution and is causing a great imbalance effecting everything that lives in the bay.
Here’s an aerial view of the algae bloom and another article about it.
I watch the news every day, I also read the news online every day. I didn’t know until recently that there has been an outright rash of oil spills since the famous BP Oil Leak. Here’s some:
If this doesn’t alarm you, you just can’t be alarmed. Since the 1950′s the amount of plankton in our oceans has dropped by 40%. The decline has been ongoing for at least a century according the Nature Journal.
Just in case you didn’t know, phytoplankton are a microscopic algae that is the bottom tier of the oceans food chain. It also provide half of the earths oxygen.
Let me put it bluntly. If we loose our plankton or planet will surely die. How quickly depends on how quickly the plankton die. If we lost all the plankton today. Animal life on this earth would begin dying in days and most of it would be dead within a week. After all animals can’t go long with out oxygen.
So what’s happening to all the plankton. Well according to the reserch:
In most regions tested, the phytoplankton decline seems to be the result of a 0.5–1.0 °C warming of the upper ocean over the past century. The warming leads to enhanced vertical ‘stratification’ of ocean layers, thus limiting the supply of nutrients from deeper waters to the surface.
We told you last month that a very grim summer was predicted for the folks up in Maine. Looks like it has started early. Here’s an excerpt from a press release from the people at the Woods Hole:
Yesterday, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist Donald Anderson told the Cape Cod Times that some small amounts of red tide toxins, below the level where it affects human or animal health, have begun showing up in shellfish along the North Shore and in one salt pond on the Cape.
Anderson said it is not clear yet whether March’s heavy rains, which wash nutrients off the land, will help feed a major red tide bloom if one develops. Northeast winds from storms also can aid a red tide outbreak by concentrating the algae along the shore, but Anderson said it was still unknown whether that was happening. Research cruises to gauge the size, location and spread of red tide blooms have not been scheduled to start until May 1.
Yesterday, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution senior scientist Donald Anderson told the Cape Cod Times that some small amounts of red tide toxins, below the level where it affects human or animal health, have begun showing up in shellfish along the North Shore and in one salt pond on the Cape.
Anderson said it is not clear yet whether March’s heavy rains, which wash nutrients off the land, will help feed a major red tide bloom if one develops. Northeast winds from storms also can aid a red tide outbreak by concentrating the algae along the shore, but Anderson said it was still unknown whether that was happening. Research cruises to gauge the size, location and spread of red tide blooms have not been scheduled to start until May 1.
They say they’ll have a little more information after they gather and analyze samples form the area waters off the coast of Maine and further offshore.
NOAA has been using some new technologies to predict future red tides. Off the coast of Maine, it appears that they will have the worst red tide ever this summer. New Hampshire is included in this gloomy forecast.
The projection is based on a sea-floor survey of the seed-like cysts of Alexandrium fundyense, (which is different than the K. Brevis red tide we get here in Fl, but just as devastating), an organism that causes the harmful algal blooms that are referred to as red tides. Cysts deposited in the fall hatch the following spring, and last fall the abundance of cysts in the sediment was 60 percent higher than observed prior to the historic bloom of 2005, indicating that a large bloom is likely in the spring of 2010.
The Scientists are so alarmed that they held a teleconference for the media in addition to their normal outlook report. Sadly the local oyster farmers seem to be in denial and even seem to be trying to blame the scientists. Saying things like “It’s so unlikely, We certainly don’t lose any sleep about it or worry much about it.” and that the last red tide closure that Duxbury oyster farmers faced was in 2005, when the state’s shellfish industry grappled with the worst red tide bloom in recent memory. Well guys, this one is supposed to be even worse so get worried. Not that there is anything to do about it. Continued…
USAToday has compiled a special report on the records numbers of red tide blooms and other harmful algae blooms that have been plauging the whole country’s coastlines over the past decade. They did a pretty great job, although I don’t think it ever made it t their front page and it’s only one page long. But they we’re able to land some quotes from some big names like people working for NOAA and Woods Hole.
It talks about how America has never had so much red tide in it’s history, not even close. It also mentions the massive numbers of fish killed, and most striking is that it’s been striking from Seattle to Maine and lots of places in between.
USAtoday is one of the least likely sources to report this kind of thing, but yet they so congratulations to them and they get a mention from me!
In the last few days, three dead dolphins have washed ashore in Volusia County, on Florida’s east coast. Numerous other dead animals like a porpoise, horseshoe crabs, birds and even a sea turtle have been recently reported.
The east coast of Florida doesn’t receive as much red tide monitoring from the state nor do they do as much of their own testing as red tide isn’t as prevalent on Florida’s east coast as it is down in southwest FL.
This week alone in Sarasota FL there have been 3 manatees found dead. The suspected cause of death? Red Tide exposure. Since September 30th, there have been a dozen reported manatees deaths in Sarasota County. Researchers from FWRI were reluctant to attribute red tide as their death and downplayed the odds of red tide being a factor. Martine DeWit, an associate research scientist from FWRI said there were no significant red tide blooms this year. Evidently she has heard about all he fish kills in the Lee County / Collier county area over the last month or so. Or maybe she’s saying that that the red tide bloom that is in Sarasota county currently isn’t strong enough to effect them and there no chance the manatees would have traveled from Lee county. Whatever she saying she also saying that FWRI will test tissue samples from the dead manatees for red tide and other toxins to determine a more definitive cause of death. We like that better than speculation.
Red tide activity is on the increase in the Gulf of Mexico. The red tide bloom in Texas stretches as far as 200 miles off shore. There’s a large fish kill involved there. Florida also has a large fish kill from a red tide bloom. It’s right off the coast of Sanibel Island and a smaller fish kill is already effecting it’s beaches.
The red tide there is strengthening and enlarging although it’s unknown how far off shore it stretches.
The red tide bloom we reported in the South Padre Island area of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico has increased instead decreased as the locals there had predicted. It seems that in some spots this red tide is very severe. It is also showing the signs of a brand new increase for example the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued a statement on Wed saying that the dead fish count was as high as 1,000 in a 15-yard stretch approx 2 miles of shore. The dead fish are moving toward slowly with the current. The fish will obviously be quite disgusting by the time they reach the beautiful beaches there.
These fish kills aren’t limited to off shore. Several fish kills have also been spotted near shore along beaches already. The effected area is as far north as Port Aransas. I checked out some official source of information for Texas citizens and was sorely disappointed. They didn’t outright lie about the health effects of red tide on humans but they left out quite a bit. Several of the more right leaning newspapers were being dishonest about the causes of red tide. More on that later.
Red Tide Solutions main and only web site, this one or redtideflorida.org was hacked.
Without going into any paranoid ramblings. I was able to closed all security holes and clean up the mess they made. If you know me personally and like to hear my paranoid ramblings about this issue. Please contact me.
Please rest assured that since Florida Red Tide Solutions may be the only independent site reporting on Florida Red tide that’s still left standing, I feel it’s doubly important to keep it running.
With between 300-1000 unique readers per month, I feel I’ve done a fair job of raising awareness of Florida Red Tide issues since 2005. I do feel overwhelmed as this doesn’t apy, and I work at my regular job 68 hours a week. If you have any writing skills or business management skills please pitch in and help. but I’ll take what I can get even if its just enough of your time to read the articles and put less fertilizer (or better yet, none!) on your lawns.
There’s been a red tide bloom in Texas for a while now.
According to a post on Caller.com, there’s a red tide bloom around Port Aransas that wasn’t strong enough for a fish kill. However the Algae bloom, which is K. Brevis, is strong enough to cause respiratory symptoms in humans.
My SA News has a story about what is apparently the same red tide which is off South Padre Island in Texas. I did notice that My Sa News is afraid to say why red tide blooms occur, instead trying to say the reasons still aren’t know (It ‘s a naturally occurring phenomenon made much worse by pollution in the water that comes from fertilizer runoff after rains. ) Since their afraid of the bad guys, they don’t get a link. Ok, Ok at least they reported the story whinh several other newspaper web sites did not, so here’s their story.
The weather report for them calls for an upcoming cold front and a breeze that will hopefully push the algae bloom back out to sea.
The Federal Government’s E.P.A. has finally begun following several townships and a few counties here in FL to set limits on the amount of red tide causing pollution that can be dumped into lakes, rivers streams, etc. by Farms and businesses.
This is a huge boon because we all knew that the local townships and counties that were primarily farmland and thus the primary cause of the fertilizer in the watershed, weren’t going to do this. After all they’re run by the farmers that are putting this stuff in the water (not on purpose mind you), in the first place.
If these limits that the EPA limits puts into effect are properly researched and implemented, there should be a huge decrease in the amount of algal blooms in Florida. In as little as one year we could see Florida Red Tide levels fall to their historic, natural levels. That means we could go years or even decades between red tides and that when they do occur they will last days or weeks instead of years.
This is huge news for Florida Red Tide Solutions! It’s half of what we’ve been saying is needed all along. The important half. The other half is red tide bloom mitigation methods. Well if there is hardly ever a red tide, mitigation becomes much less important doesn’t it?
To the UAE, ( a Persian Gulf country), red tide blooms are a new thing. However after just one year they already have the US and the State of Florida beat. That’s yet another country that is using various clay slurry treatments to mitigate red tide blooms.
Our only attempt in Florida (that we know of, if there are any others, please let us know), was sponsored by Mote Marine. Sadly, they insisted that polluted clay from phosphorus mines be used (phosphorus is one of the main nutrients that red tide needs to sustain a bloom). The scientist refused to participate, were fired and the Mote Marine declared that clay slurry treatments were bad for the environment (only true if you use polluted clay).
Heck, even high school kids and local inventors are beating us with red tide mitigation methods.
It is definitely time to shake up Florida’s dysfunctional scientific community. One has to wonder whats up with Mote Marine wanting to use polluted clay from Phosporus mines, does it have something to do with their funding, are they somehow connected? We asked them, but they just won’t answer.
Lacking leadership and legislation from the State of Florida, many townships cities and counties are making their own laws banning or partially banning the use of fertilizer. The latest legislation to be enacted is from Lee county.
Sounds like good news right?
Sure it is. However the fertilizers that the homeowners in coastal communities aren’t as much as their governments put into the water over fertilizing and over watering their medians, parks and the yards of thier public buildings.
Even worse are the farms up river. these farms put Tons per acre of fertilizers on their lands, not even Naples puts that much fertilizers on their medians (although . . .)
these counties where the farms are will never ban or limit fertilizers. however the fertilizers that wash off their lands pollute the communities down river of them. The entire southern half of Florida (except the developed portions) is a river. It’s called “The River of Grass”. It also happens to have a traditional river running through it, The Caloosahatchee river. It’s through these rivers that thousands of tons of fertilizer flows into the Gulf and Bays and feed the red tide.
The state is the only org that can do anything about this. But they are still trying to pretend there’s nothing unusual about our red tides . . .
Florida Citizens and visitors have been using the report red tide (thanks!) page to tell us about what they thought was a large red tide bloom along the east coast of Florida. Well Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute begs to differ.
Algae
They say it’s a less lethal “diatom” bloom. I’m not sure if they are purposely trying to confuse you or they are trying to be scientifically accurate. But it’s an algae bloom folks.
Sometimes I regret not going with my instinct. When I first heard about a fish kill in the Myakka river, and realized that it was right after a moderate rain, my instinct said red tide or blue green algae was to blame. I pass by the Myakka river frequently in my travels and I had been noticing that it had a lot of regular algae in it.
All that is just guess work though and not science. Combine that with the incredible demands on my time lately, and I decided not to post anything.
Well it turned out I was right, but I still don’t regret posting my initial thoughts. I should have posted that it was a fish kill, and the conditions were appropriate for an algae bloom.
It looks like Lee County is not only learning how to prevent red tide, but is also learning that all they have to do is try and they’ll make a difference. They’ve recently enacted legislation which while poorly written and still not very effective, will make a difference.
Here’s some of the points the legislation covers:
The new ordinance stipulates that fertilizers containing nitrogen or phosphorus cannot be used during the four-month rainy season of June through September.
Fertilizer application is also prohibited within 10 feet of any body of water, seawall or wetland.
All spreaders must be equipped with a deflector shield to better target application and to prevent errant fertilizer from being spread into water buffer areas and hard impervious surfaces like roads, driveways and sidewalks.
Clippings and trimmings cannot be swept or blown into ditches, drains or any body of water, or onto any road or sidewalk.
Professional landscapers are required to register with the county and have at least one employee certified through a training program offered by the University of Florida Lee County Extension Service.
Sarasota FL – Mote Marine recently concluded a 4 year long study that shows:
Red tide harms birds and sea turtles.
Sea turtles take longer to be rehabilitated from red tide exposure than birds.
Yup, that’s it. That took them 4 years and God only knows how much of the money that was granted for the specific purpose of exploring the link between pollution and red tide blooms.
Still no good answer from them as to why they are refusing to study this issue in earnest.
There is a tiny little piece of good news about Mote Marine however. Disney and the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary are performing some research into a drug called Cholestyramine for the treatment of red tide in birds. Mote and FWRI and jumping n the bandwagon. Hopefully they aren’t there to maliciously influence test results and will actually be helpful.. One would guess from their previous actions that they would want this to work because this drug is made by an established company. Mote and FWRI have a history of appearing to serve these companies instead of the people and animals of Florida.
I’m not sure how helpful this is but some researchers have discovered that sometimes plankton, algae and other microbes get trapped between layers of ocean water moving in different directions.
The research into the little known (until reported here), area of Plankton Parasites (or parasitoids ), is paying off. In case you haven’t heard, there is a species of micro organisms that feed on specific species of plankton (K. Brevis is one of them). It seems that when several harmful algal blooms like red tide blooms occur in a series for more than a few years in a row (like the last 15 years in Florida or the last 5 in Maine) the problem may be that this parasite can’t survive something and thus can’t flourish enough to reduce the amount of K Brevis in the water.
Here’s some quotes from an article about it:
Using a new technique that allows researchers to track the parasites as they infect the plankton with fluorescent markers, Guillou and her colleagues were able to monitor both an invasive species of plankton and the parasites for three years in a coastal estuary in France. What they were able to see was the very early infection of the plankton by the parasite, and then the eventual swelling and bursting of the plankton as the parasite’s many offspring broke free — hungry to infect again.
“We hypothesize that when a bloom occurs, these parasitoids are not able to infect the invasive species,” Guillou said.
Hello long time, recent and first time readers of Florida Red Tide Solutions! My name is Texx Smith and I’m the sole operator here. I usually am very good at adding new content. However since February of this year I’ve been very busy supplying the Data Systems and General IT services for a WIND Certification Entity participating with the state of Florida’s My Safe Florida Home program. A lot of you have probably noticed the number of new articles per month has dropped off the charts.
The good news is that I’m finally starting to work normal business type hours for money, now I can put in some man hours for Red Tide and spend more time with family. there will be several Florida Red Tide articles posted in the next few days. Even one from a guest writer.
Here’s a hint about some upcoming articles:
Breaking news about lawmakers and Red Tide
Red Tide in Washington state
Local Politicians testify about Red Tide to Feds
Breaking News about Maine’s Red Tide
Educational / Science article by a guest writer
Before even the first article is written or posted however, the red tide report will be updated.
Then some articles.
Then I’m setting up a forum here where it’ll be easy for the public to add their own Florida red tide reports or global red tide reports environmental news etc.
Consistent increases in water pollution and water temperatures are causing an increasing amount of Algae blooms in coastal waters of Virginia. Chris Moore, a scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also says the algae are especially plentiful in lower Chesapeake Bay bay and in the Hampton Roads area. Further Mr. Moore is quoted as saying:
NOAA has been using some new technologies to predict future red tides. Off the coast of Maine, it appears that they will have the worst red tide ever this summer. New Hampshire is included in this gloomy forecast.
Florida Citizens and visitors have been using the 
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