Florida Gulf Coast Red Tide Now The Size Of Delaware - Miami Herald

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Red tide sucks oxygen out of the water, suffocating sea life, and contains poisons that impair the nerves. Eighty-one lumbering sea turtles have been killed by red tide in less than three months, a fourfold increase over the usual amount, and another eight are gravely ill. Last week, the algae bloom was blamed for a newly discovered ''dead zone'' off Tampa that extends along 2,000 square miles of ocean floor, a soupy underwater graveyard the size of Delaware filled with dead sponges, sand dollars and reefs. Forida's red tide is different from the strain, deadly to humans, that ravaged New England's shellfish beds earlier this summer. Still, people in the Sunshine State are adversely affected in ways both marked and mundane.

TOXIN IN THE AIR

Eating infested shellfish can trigger vomiting and other unpleasantries. The algae also produces an aerosol-like toxin that irritates throats, bloodies noses and triggers asthma fits. Red tide has forced the cancellation of Little League games and summertime bluegrass concerts, and prompted residents of tony Gasparilla Island to don white surgical masks. During particularly intense blooms, visits to a Sarasota emergency room for pneumonia, bronchitis and respiratory complaints spiked by 50 percent, a University of Miami biologist, Lora Fleming, found.

''When it gets going, everyone is coughing and hacking, everyone's eyes are watering,'' said Debbie Hodges, a toll collector at the Skyway State Fishing Pier near St. Petersburg. She keeps a can of Lysol in her booth to mask the red tide smell. Because this algae strain occurs naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, with reports of its existence dating back 200 years, many scientists and state officials have long characterized its ill effects as lamentable but unavoidable, the price of living along Florida's left coast. Toxic algae blooms are rare on the Atlantic side, scientists say, because the water is faster running and lower in algae-feeding nutrients.

`A SERIOUS EVENT'

''This is a serious event, that's without question,'' said Cindy Heil, senior research scientist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. ``But it's completely natural, yes.'' Yet the virulence, longevity and breadth of Florida's bloom this year has caused other scientists, environmental activists and residents to question just how natural such an intense red tide could be. Red tide blooms are usually seasonal, and in Florida typically last just a few months over the fall. But this year's red tide bloom began in January, crested in March, and never died off. It now extends from north of Tampa south past Sarasota, and will likely push farther south. While scientists have been unable to forecast when red tide will strike, they do know the algae requires a steady diet of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus to live and thrive. Both are found in abundance in fertilizer, storm runoff and sewage, fueling speculation that Florida's explosive growth is more than partly responsible for the noxious algal blanket currently choking so much life out of the Gulf.

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12442372.htm

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I wonder what it smells like?

I've only smelled a red tide once, and it was pretty rank.

People who have smelled several say that they can smell different from each other, but that none of them smell good, or even neutral. It's like a dozen different kinds of bad.

Imagine what the sea life is going through -- if any is still alive.

--p!

I have only seen them from afar

It's that martian vegitation! Run!

I didn't even know about the volatile nature of this toxic algae bloom.

I'll pass it along to my colleagues up here in Puget Sound.

b_b

I've read news stories about boats moving through red tide blooms, and in some cases the brevetoxins are enough to induce vomiting or make people pass out.

Maybe it's not warm enough up here long enough to generate those toxins. I'm a boater and a toxicologist and have never heard of this. Thanks again, hatrack. There is always something to learn.
b_b

The county abreast of this red tide is one that pumps sewage into the ground. Yep. the sewage flows down into well casings that once upon a time were used to extract drinking water. Well, years ago, those wells turned sour and new water sources were found. But since they had so much sewage in Pinellas county, some wise guy came up with the bright idea of pumping that sewage back down those well casings.

It is well known that the geology of Florida is karst, meaning porous and filled with caverns. Many springs pop up on land and on the coastal shelf. What Pinellas has done is to pollute those springs with their sewage and consequently feeding the red tide. It's only just begun in earnest, and its only going to get worse.

If you live down there, my advice is to head for the hills.