This is yet another response to those who say there is no way known to stop a red tide bloom. There are many, here’s one that’s been proven to work and be environmentally safe. It’s been used in Asia for decades.
It’s called “Clay slurry”, it involves mixing clay with water to get a fine slurry that is sprayed on ultra-large areas of water that are effected by a HAB (Harmful Alagal Bloom – like red tide is.)
It’s described in depth here. Also mentioned is some of the testing which provides one method of disproving that clay slurry is harmful to the environment because it deposits clay on the bottom which is bad for the organisms there (so little clay is used in the mix that it can’t even be measured when it hits the bottom). The other negative theory buster comes from other scientists and I’ll add a quote here as soon as I can dig it up, and common sense – Anything in the area during a red tide bloom will most likely be dying anyway, including organisms on the bottom. the key is to treat the red tide bloom while it’s still small, before it spreads.
Wait – wasn’t there a big controversy with this method of red tide mitigation and Mote Marine?
Sure was! For some strange reason they wanted to use polluted clay from phosphate mines to make the slurry! Whether that was to discount the whole clay slurry method falsely, to try and convince the public that phosphate mining pollution was curing, not causing red tide, or just to do financial favor for phosphate mining industry is unclear.
The project was canceled because the scientists who were working on it resigned due to “irreconcilable philosophical” differences.
I know, it’s hard to believe they would do such a stupid thing and then try to say it was a good thing, but here you can read about it in their own words on their own web site. In case they take the article down (they do that when they get embarrassed sometimes, I’ve noticed) I’ll publish a little “fair-use” quote:
” . . . mixing clay left over from the phosphate mining process with water and spraying it on a harmful algal bloom holds some promise for getting rid of red tides . . .”
Can we just go out there and start spraying this clay slurry everywhere? No, we need to learn how the Asians use it first and then modify this method (probably) to better suit our waters and needs. This shouldn’t take more than a year. If all went well we could have red tide cured in 2 years!
Here’s some more links on this well documented method the government of Florida seems mostly oblivious to:
One of the obvious drawbacks to this red tide mitigation method is that it’s pretty hard to cover and area as large as a beginning red tide bloom. It’s sounds as though it may be impossible to use this on a large existing red tide bloom!