Bumper Crop Of Reeking Algae Hitting Ft. Myers Beaches - More May Be On Way - HT

[hatrack]

Clumps of seaweed the size of hay bales are undulating in Gulf waters and washing ashore from Fort Myers to Anna Maria Island. A 3-foot-wide mat of seaweed stretched for miles Thursday along Manasota Key as beachgoers wrinkled their noses at the rotting smell. On Siesta Key in Sarasota, county beach managers have already spent more than $130,000 to dispose of more than 2,200 tons of unsightly seaweed since October.

This is just the beginning of the season when red seaweed usually starts to proliferate, said Brian LaPointe, a marine biologist hired by the state to study nuisance seaweed in the Gulf. And it looks like more seaweed is on the way because of dry weather and the accumulation of nutrients on the ocean floor, LaPointe said.

The seaweed is a type of algae commonly referred to as red drift. It looks like tangled mats of hair on the beach and is more a nuisance than a health threat. Unlike red tide, a microscopic algae that kills sea life, red drift produces no toxins. Swimming in it, however, can cause rashes in some people.

"It needs to be in the trash can," said Charles W. Gross, a Rotonda resident who was fishing on Englewood Beach on Thursday. LaPointe has been studying red drift algae on the Gulf coast ever since a particularly bad bloom in 2004 dumped piles of the smelly stuff knee-deep onto Fort Myers beaches. This years' bloom could rival that of 2004, LaPointe said. He said he has never seen a documented case of more red drift algae in the Gulf.

EDIT

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/NEWS/703090684/1006/SPORTS

[donsu]

1. how and where do they dispose of it?

nt

[hatrack]

2. Damned if I know - compost it?

:shrug:

[tabatha]

4. biofuel

They should use it for biofuel.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. My first thought! :^D

[silverweb]

9. Exactly!

:thumbsup:

[11 Bravo]

3. Please, God, let it wash ashore in front of Limbaugh\'s condo.

[madrchsod]

5. depending on the type there`s a lot of uses

for seaweed. problem may be there is no one that can handle the processing of seaweed in florida

[kestrel91316]

6. Compost it, you idiots. It's biologically useful organic material.

I suppose that concept is beyond most FL government officials.

[NNadir]

10. Did you ever hear of salt?

[jpak]

11. The salt content is irrelevant - if it's organic it can be composted

Composting just accelerates the process of microbial decomposition/remineralization - this stuff "rots" on the beach all by itself...composting it is not a problem.

:hi:

[Dead_Parrot]

12. Maybeing I'm being dim...

but wouldn't the compost still have loads of salt in it? :shrug:

[jpak]

13. If it's not rinsed off first, yes - but seaweed fertilizer/mulch has been used for centuries

and large municipal composting facilities can use seaweed just fine (the terrestrial organic stuff dilutes the salt input).

http://www.compostguide.com/

[jpak]

8. A lot of beach communities compost Sargassum and other pelagic "seaweeds"

In Texas, they use heavy equipment to pile it up and take it away...

(and they all smell bad when they rot)