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Sarasota News Leader February 22, 2013 The only signs of life are a few other beach worshippers and a kettle of turkey vultures circling above them and a venue of turkey vultures tugging and squabbling over a dead fish, as though they did not have a million other putrid fish from which to choose. Oh, sometimes they will see a discombobulated Brown Pelican purposelessly waddling the dunes, a tired look in its eyes. So, what do these people do? They find a spot upwind of the rotting fish carcasses, raise their umbrellas, plunk themselves down in their beach chairs, sit and read and sunbathe for hours, sometimes walking along the shore for exercise. And they do all this in their bare feet! Page 113 ���If you believe you are suffering from red tide poisoning, call the Aquatic Toxins tollfree hotline: 1-888-232-8635. The hotline is staffed by medical professionals 24/7.��� See how easy it is to post useful information? Mote Marine Laboratory, in conjunction with NOAA, updates red tide information on Sarasota County beach conditions at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day. For more information, click on the link. During a red tide disturbance, Mote���s website and Florida toll-free telephone number (1-866-300-9399) or local number (941-BEACHES) should be posted where every seasonal renter can find it. If Turtle Beach is plagued by red tide, beachgoers should be told which beaches are not. It is rather like the Macy���s Santa sending shoppers to Gimbels in the classic 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street. That goodwill gesture worked nicely because it instilled a sense of faith and trust in people. There is no point in downplaying (and in some cases, downright obfuscating) the effects of red tide when it splashes over our beaches. Whatever are they thinking? Obviously, they are not. Could it be that red tide���s brevetoxins have circumvented all human immunological defenses to detoxify harmful substances before they reach the brain? Secondhand cigarette smoke on the beach does not produce miles-long piles of dead fish or itchy eyes and dry coughing spells. And stepping on a half-buried cigarette butt cannot give a bare THE SENSE OF BIRDS foot a puncture wound that a fish barb infestPeople should be more aware of their natural ed with staph bacteria can. surroundings. We birds are the canaries in the The study of chronic effects of Karenia bre- coal mine. When we fall silent, take warning! vis on people may still be in its infancy, but people have recourse to a vast amount of free Now, back to the salient point in this disand easily accessible information provided by course ��� government and private institutions. Beach- The origin of the phrase ���to bury one���s head goers must learn to take advantage of that in- in the sand,��� meaning to ignore or hide from formation, just as fisherfolk do. To me, that danger, arose from Pliny the Elder���s (A.D. 23 also means that the tourism industry in Flor- to A.D. 79) description of an ostrich hiding its ida needs to take a far more proactive role in head in a bush, confident that no one could disseminating information on red tide to the see it. Pliny the Elder was a naturalist and an public. To date, it has erred too far on the side astute observer of human nature. However, of discretion or dissembling. birds were not his forte. On avian topics, I be-