Mystery Beach Slime In FL A Mix Of Red Tide, Blue-Green Algae

[hatrack]

A scare of an oil slick or some other environmental calamity, which briefly closed beaches Wednesday as scientists scooped up and studied the residue, turned out to be a mixture of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, and a blue-green algae, called Trichodesmium. Together, the primordial soup laid down an oily, brownish coating atop the surf and on scattered beaches.

Water samples taken Wednesday morning showed high concentrations of both K. brevis and Trichodesmium, which provides nutrients for the red tide organism. Jennifer Wolny, a harmful-algae-bloom biologist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, said the K. brevis counts "were high - in the millions of cells per liter. "When you have cell concentrations that high you can get fish kills, respiratory distress and discolored water," Wolny said. The Trichodesium count was in the hundreds of thousands of trichomes per liter, she said, which also is a high concentration.

These numbers could bode bad news for two very popular events on the beach this weekend. The 2006 Zephyrhills Beach Volleyball Series will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Manatee Public Beach, and the Beach House Skimboard Bash will be on Saturday. "Our parks and recreation department will be on alert and we have access to the road gangs (in the event of a massive fish kill)," said Charlie Hunsicker, director of the Manatee County Conservation Lands Management Department. "We will endeavor to sweep the beach clean."

Local residents and visitors to the county beaches also did not need the scientists' numbers to tell them red tide had reached Manatee County. The dead fish lying on the beach and floating in Sarasota Bay, along with the cough-inducing tickle in the throat, was enough to tell any beachgoer the old familiar problem is back, although late in the summer, unlike last year.

EDIT

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/15345331.htm

[Dr.Phool]

1. Whew!!! For a moment, I thought Katherine Harris had gone swimming

And all of her make-up washed off.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. ...

:spray: !!!

:rofl:


:thumbsup:

[NNadir]

3. .

:rofl:

[godhatesrepublicans]

4. Quick, someone find a recipe for this gunge.

after all. "If life gives you lemons..."

[NNadir]

5. It sounds like a biodiesel opportunity.