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Toxic Algae Threatens Florida's Gulf Coast
As reported by Discovery News, After Toledo had to temporarily ban residents from using tap water last weekend because of a toxic algae bloom on Lake Erie, you probably figured that we’d filled the quota of bad algae-related news for the summer. No such luck, unfortunately. Off the Gulf Coast of Florida, the biggest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade already has killed thousands of fish. The bloom, which contains the microorganism Karenia brevis,
may pose a public health threat to Floridians if it washes ashore, which is expected to happen in the next two weeks, according to Reuters.
NBC News says this is the largest such bloom seen since 2006 — approximately 50 x 80 miles.
Does it have anything to do with the BP oil spill?
nope....Gators come to Tuscaloosa next month.
And those are just the Yankee fans from Queens.
The smell from this can be horrendous and is bad for tourism. Several counties on the West coast of Florida have issued restrictions on the use of fertilizers. The fertilizers used on lawns is blamed for the red tide outbreaks by feeding the organisms, it is believed. The effect on the environment can be harmful in depleting and causing population loss of fish and other species. A large portion of the runoff of fertilizer is from entirely ornamental landscape applications, a complete waste of resources, especially considering the issue of Phosphate depletion. I would like to see a broad restrictions on such fertilizers except for production of food crops. That some people would waste the resource nd threaten the ecosystem, for the vanity of a perfect green yard is outrageous. In Florida, they often use grass species which are pretty much impossible to keep going without these massive applications, such as St. Augustine. When you stop throwing the chemicals on the yard, the St. Augustine will mostly go away.
Its time for the new world order to fess up and explain to the world what kind of science that is driving the anonymous chemicals being sprayed from those mystery aircraft everyone labled as a nutjob conspiracy theorist is writing about on-line.
We can feed it to homeless, we can call it "soylent green", it's made nutritious for people!
St. Albans Bay and Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain are on high alert for blue green algae blooms and associated cyanobacteria.
Communities up and down Lake Champlain in New York and Vermont have been dealing with this for years.
Let's not forget phosphate mines, or leaks: e.g., Piney Point, Jeb Bush & Friends
http://www.thebradentontimes.com/news/2011/06/22/environment/piney_point_1966_2011_a_retrospective/#.U-gRnviGTgA
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/huge-red-tide-algae-bloom-could-move-ashore-florida-n175506
One reason I turfed my backyard with artificial turf.
I was sick of weeds, animals digging in it, mowing it, fertilizing it, the kids trampoline killing it.
Synthetic grass can now look as good as the real deal. It can get hot in summer, but otherwise its nice having an always perfect looking lawn.
46137
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The unmentionable.
Companies like Synagro and WeCare Organics take municipal waste and deposit it on farm fields where your food is grown.
There is a lot of money in this - the kitty is so rich, sometimes back room deals are made to keep the gravy train rolling and sludge hauling contracts active.
Powerful lobbies, such as the WEF and AWWA "educate" the political establishment to keep nutrient standards low.
Look up what happened in the Chesapake Bay....
Algae blooms are the inevitable result.
On the other side, people have been trying for years to get labeling standards improved so consumers can make informed choices as to if they want to eat food grown in sludge, but year over year the bill dies in committee. The opposing side doesn't have the money to counter the powerful WEF lobby, so congressional masters kill the bill in committee every year its introduced.
One can only hope is that now that algae blooms are happening with greater frequency and more people are being impacted, that new nutrient standards will become the norm and this sludge spreading nonsense will end.
Red Tide, which happens in other coastal areas as well, is a phenomenon that's been occurring for centuries.
Undoubtedly, there are anthropogenic influences on this and every facet of the environment. Rightfully so, restrictions on fertilizer use are already in place, or pending in, affected areas.
Though it is inconvenient and unprofitable in the short term, the collective conscience of the governed requires the governors to care about and remedy shit like this.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
And when it is a red tide... red tinged algal bloom... it is almost always very harmful and contaminates all the shell fish in the affected area making them toxic to humans... highly toxic. And the effect can last for years. Being sea water people are not likely to drink it, so that is one difference from Ohio.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Why don't these farms have filtration systems that filter the waste water *before* it goes out to sea?
They just don't want you to drink the water because the toxin gives you a good buzz.
We were there for the last red tide back in 2006 and one thing we noticed is it makes you cough similar to pepper spray (yes I have experience pepper spray).
Zoid.com
So what you're saying is this may be a good time to invest in companies that make bottled water or purification systems.
The "new world order" is nothing more than a handful of extremely rich people conspiring to ensure that their families get even richer while everyone else's gets even poorer. No mystery aircraft pumping strange chemicals into the ocean needed.
Yeah, the world is run by sociopaths. But they aren't aliens. Chill.
The connection between fertilizer run off and red tide has been challenging to pinpoint, probably other conditions need also need to be met. There does seem to be a relation iron blowing off the Sahara and blooms shows some correlation. It could be related to desertification resulting from population pressures in North Africa.
"Timescape." Pretty good book. Not up-to-date, but still a nice read.
CmdrTaco stopped reading Slashdot long ago. Remember, he was forced out by the new owners, years back. Seeing what Dice has done to the place (Beta, et al) is more painful than anything you could ever post.
The point about filtering is well made, but to believe that 2500 miles of ocean is not enough to disperse the gunk seems pessimistic!
Are the bloom moving closer to Orlando?
Looking for a live bloom radar image of the gulf. Local TV news show nice image maps when reporting but I can't find the source. The FWC has a weekly sample file you can upload to google earth... too old. I searched NOAA's site... no luck.