Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/110922
Sarasota News Leader February 22, 2013 No one on our key can escape the debilitating effects of a red tide. Its pervasive noxious odor is as bad as Tabu, the forbidden fragrance, unless, of course, you are partial to the concentrated scent of patchouli and musky glandular secretions. The toxins it releases into the water are spread by spume and winds and cause respiratory distress. Florida public health officials warn that people inhaling these brevetoxins can suffer dry coughing fits, sneezing and teary eyes. Skin irritation can be another effect. Usually these symptoms are short-lived. Page 110 algal bloom occurs sporadically. In some years no outbreaks occur; then a massive outbreak unexpectedly erupts, such as that of 2005, or this year���s, which came seemingly out of the blue ��� no pun intended. Second, the bloom begins miles out to sea, far away from our shoreline; but depending on tide and wind activity, it usually will impact our coastline at some point. Why does red tide occur? It may be Mother Nature���s way of restoring the balance to the Gulf, which might have become overpopulated by a single species of fish, or of eliminating weakened or parasite-infested organisms starting with coral reefs and moving right on up the food chain. It is a leveler, a natural scourge that can create ���dead zones��� in which nothing survives. However, unlike the manmade ���dead zones��� in our seas, life returns after red tide and repopulates the waters it devastated. On the bright side, Floridians should take pride in the following: First, Florida has its very own variety of red tide (Karenia brevis), which exists only in the Gulf of Mexico. K. brevis outbreaks occur sporadically and unpredictably when a dinoflagellate (Greek for ���whirling scourge���), a tiny, fragile organism, breaks open and spews its toxins into the Gulf���s waters. Essentially, it is plankton The law of nature is not ���eat or be eaten.��� It is in algal form, which explains the term ���algal ���prey and be preyed upon.��� Somewhere along bloom.��� our shores, in our bays and estuaries, is red Second, not a single case of Neurotoxic Shell- tide���s natural enemy, one capable of slowing fish Poisoning has ever been reported in Flor- its spread and eventually eliminating it. Two ida by people who have eaten commercially likely predators come to my mind ��� a xenoharvested shellfish. The instant an outbreak phobic microbe, a bacterium, defending its of red tide that has formed far offshore has territory that could attach itself to this flagelbeen detected, government agencies and late and eventually destroy it. Or, let us think private research institutes immediately take in bigger terms and imagine the Gulf menhaden (a type of herring). It is a forage fish that draconian measures to monitor the fishing filters and clarifies ocean waters. Menhaden industry closely so people can shop at Siesta swim in tightly compressed schools, and a sinKey���s Big Water Fish Market for their bouillagle adult menhaden can filter and clarify up to baisse ingredients or dine on ceviche at Javifour gallons of water a minute. This fish lays er���s Restaurant, for example. its eggs out in the open seas, but those eggs, There are two basic facts that people should numbering in the millions, are borne by curknow about red tide disturbances. First, this rents, tides and winds into coastal estuaries,