WEBVTT - What Is Florida's Red Tide? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:10.479 Stuff Lauren bog Obam here. Since about the summer of 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.040 the Gulf Coast of Florida has suffered from a disturbing phenomenon, 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.760 an expanse of murky, reddish brown water that kills vast 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.840 quantities of fish and other aquatic animals and leaves the 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.279 beaches littered with carcasses, reeking from the smell of decomposition. 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:28.800 The carnage is the result of a phenomenon called a 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:33.000 red tide, an explosion of harmful alkal blooms that occurs 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.080 in ocean waters around the world. According to the u 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.240 S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, these blooms occur when 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.640 colonies of particular kinds of algae, which are tiny plants 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.200 that can live in both fresh and salt water, grow 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.400 out of control and produce toxins that can kill fish 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.440 and make shellfish unsafe to eat. The red tide that 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.200 choked Florida lasted for almost eighteen months until February of 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.800 twenty nineteen, when it was no longer detected in the waters, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.440 but now it appears to be back. Scientists from the 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.640 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released a report in 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.559 November of twenty nineteen stating that a bloom of red 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.400 tide had been observed in southwest Florida and that they 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.720 had received reports of fish kills as well. All harmful 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.360 algal blooms have been reported at times in every US 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:24.560 coastal state. They occur nearly every summer along Florida's Gulf coast. There, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.320 the species that most often causes the problem is Corennia brevis, 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:32.280 a microscopic organism with a massive potential for destruction. To 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:36.000 distinguish it from other varieties of red tidek brevis blooms 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:40.160 are called Florida red tide. According to the Florida Fish 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.280 and Wildlife Conservation Commission, cab brevist is found in the 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.319 waters off of Florida year round in concentrations of a 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.760 thousand cells or less per liter of water, but in 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.880 the summer and early fall, cab Brevis can go wild. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.520 For example, a study by University of South Florida scientists 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.560 published in these scientific journal Censors describes a July fourteen 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.520 bloom in which the algae multiplied concentrations of up to 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.480 twenty million per liter of water in some patches and 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.200 formed a bloom that spread over thousands of square miles 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:13.959 of offshore water. Red tides apparently have been happening along 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.840 the Florida coast for a long time. Spanish explorers described 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.520 finding massive fish kills in the fifteen hundreds, and the 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.480 phenomenon was first scientifically documented in the eighteen forties. A 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.200 massive Florida red tide event that started in November of 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:33.600 nine lasted roughly a year and killed estimated one billion fish. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.960 What exactly causes Florida red tide events remains a little murky, 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.320 though A study published by University of Miami scientists in 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.560 the journal Harmful Algae in December and Yes, there is 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.280 a whole journal for this suggests that it has to 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.040 do with fluctuations in the position of the loop current, 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.680 which is a flow of warm water that travels through 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.520 the e Gulf of Mexico. Though red tide has gotten 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.440 a lot of media coverage, it's unclear whether looms are 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.200 actually getting any worse. We spoke via email with marine 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.160 scientist Dr Vince Loveco, a manager of the phytoplankton Ecology 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.080 program at Marine Laboratory and Zarasoda Florida and Hailey Rutger 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:16.720 Moats content development manager. They explained it's hard to provide 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.239 a simple answer about the long term trends in red 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.680 tide frequency, abundance of the algae, size of blooms throughout 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.520 Florida's history, or long term trends and other features because 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.799 data collection has changed and improved so much over time. 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.800 Red tides do a lot of damage. The toxins released 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.680 by cabe revis can cause massive die offs of fish, shrimp, sponges, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.480 sea urchins, crabs, and sea birds. The toxins can cause 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.160 sea turtles to swim in circles and lose their coordinations 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.800 so that they become stranded and die. And creatures as 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.240 large as manatees may succumb to the poison as well 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.280 as they eat smaller animals that have ingested the toxins. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.880 And even people, particularly those with emphysema and asthma, can 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.040 be harmed by red tide as coastal INDs blow airborne 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.560 toxins inland as far as a mile or about one 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.800 and a half kilometers. Folks with lung sensitivities are advised 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.920 to avoid red tied areas. So can something be done? 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.040 To stop red tides or at least control them. As 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.120 of yet, nobody's come up with a solution. Love Cohen 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.880 Rector said, Corenia brevist occurs naturally in the Gulf of Mexico, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.520 and there is no tried and true way to completely 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:28.560 remove the algae and its impacts without potentially harming gulf ecosystems. However, 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.159 we are studying smaller scale control and mitigation methods that 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.919 may benefit limited area waterways, such as closed canals in 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:41.400 red tide affected coastal communities. Researchers are exploring some possible 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.919 methods for red tied mitigation, such as living docks covered 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.719 with filter feeding animals and oz nation equipment that could 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.280 remove red tide from limited areas of water. The use 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:55.000 of K brevast killing compounds from seaweed or other organisms 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.600 that would act as parasites on them are other possible 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:05.760 remedies being evaluated. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.840 Kiger and produced by Tyler Clay. Brain Stuff is production 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:10.919 of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:12.920 this and lots of other topics, visit our home planet, 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.520 how Stuff Works dot com and for more podcasts for 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.480 my Heart Radio visit the heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.240 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.