Red tide panel warns of threats to South Florida

President Rosenberg speaks at the podium during the panel discussion. (Photo by Ossman Darwiche)

By: Ossman Darwiche/Staff Writer

 

Experts at the University gathered together to let the community know what kind of threat red tide is to the people of South Florida and the world as a whole on Tuesday, Oct. 9.

Michael Heithaus, the dean of the College of Arts Sciences and Education, served as moderator for the event.

“For me, this issue is actually very personal. I’m a marine biologist and I’ve been on the oceans all over the world for all of my life… it is devastating not just to the marine life but to the communities around there,” said Heithaus.

University President Mark B. Rosenberg was in attendance, and he inquired as to the impact of the phenomenon on the Biscayne Bay Campus.

Thomas Frankovich, research associate professor at the Institute of Water and Environment, replied to Rosenberg that the toxic blooms are concentrated in specific marine areas of the Florida coast. If the organisms reach the Biscayne Bay they will be isolated to those areas and should not deeply impact BBC.

Red tide is a naturally occurring phenomenon. However, it is happening on a more alarmingly frequent scale due to global climate change. South Florida, the panel stressed, is ground zero for climate change.

“Coastal water quality issues are a direct result of interior freshwater management. Solutions, for which, were crafted twenty-five years ago,” said Evelyn Gaiser, professor of Biology at the University.

Frankovich said at the panel that the algae that is involved in this red tide event is the same organism that has been blooming in the Gulf Coast and poses a potential dangerous threat to South Florida.

The algae is a natural organism found in the Gulf of Mexico but Frankovich said that it has recently increased in frequency and intensity.

Jose M. Eirin-Lopez, associate professor at the College of Arts, Sciences and Education, said that the red tide can pose a clinical threat to not only animal life in marine and coastal communities, but also human populations.

Kathleen Rein, professor at CASE and expert in algal toxins, spoke on the methods of transmission for toxic blooms and on the hazardous health effects they can have on people.

“The compounds are odorless, colorless, tasteless and, unfortunately, they are quite stable; no amount of heat or cooking will cause them to decompose,” said Rein. “Humans are exposed to these toxins through a couple of different routes. The first and most common is the consumption of contaminated shellfish and the second is through the inhalation of aerosols.”

Rein said that contamination can cause symptoms including nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain and muscle aches.

Other symptoms include loss of balance and motor coordination, numbness or tingling in the extremities, temperature sensation reversal and, in severe cases, partial paralysis or even seizures. Symptoms can last from hours to days.

Both Carolin Lusby of the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and Brian Van Hook, the associate director of the Florida Small Business Development Center, said that red tide poses a threat to the local economy, particularly businesses that thrive on Florida’s coastal life.

They said they fear some of these businesses will withhold information from their customers out of fear of losing them, but businesses can gain financial support from certain programs if they are affected by natural disasters.

 

1 Comment on "Red tide panel warns of threats to South Florida"

  1. This subject on Red Tide could have been researched better, instead, you wrote that global climate change is the of this phenomenon. However, the red tide is actually caused by water management cuts that have added up to $700 million over the past eight years and has allowed an exponential increase in water run-off from our enormous sugar cane industry. This run-off contains an immense flow of nitrogen deposits, causing a larger number of red tide to bloom. Climate change does exist, but you might want to educate yourself before you start publishing articles that clearly show a lack of understanding on the topic of climate change and red tide’s actual influencer.

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