Bradenton Herald

Sep. 23, 2006 
 

Red tide levels medium in Manatee

 

 

By CARL MARIO NUDI

ANNA MARIA ISLAND - The barrier islands have been spared another week of the unbearable effects of red tide.

According to a weekly report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute on Friday, water samples from along the shores of Manatee County have shown, at most, medium concentrations of the Karenia brevis organism.

A medium concentration of K. brevis, the single-cell phytoplankton that causes red tide, was found within a mile of shore on the north end of Anna Maria Island.

Water samples taken from five to eight miles offshore from the island also showed medium concentrations, as did a sample taken about two miles west of Longboat Pass.

"One thing we noticed is that this bloom is made up of smaller patches and that they are moving around a lot," said Cindy Heil, an ecologist and senior research scientist at FWRI in St. Petersburg. "Samples from many of the locations have been on the low end."

Heil said the high concentrations of K. brevis have not been as prevalent as last year in Manatee County.

"It's hard to speculate why without more data," she said.

Sarasota County and areas south have not been as lucky, with high concentrations of K. brevis lurking for more than a month along the coast there.

The K. brevis organism releases a neurotoxin into the water that kills fish and other marine animals, which wash up on the shore and create a foul smell for beachgoers.

With heavy wave action, the neurotoxin also can become an aerosol, which irritates the eyes and throats of some of the visitors to the islands.

Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota has been studying the effects of red tide on humans with eight other research organizations.

It was announced Thursday that the ongoing research project has been awarded a $7.53 million grant through the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Heil said that was exciting news because there needs to be more research on red tide and its effects on humans.

"This type of research needs to be extended over a number of years," she said. "Some questions can be answered with a year's research, but the bigger questions need multiple years of red tide and lots of funding to accomplish that research."

The renewed funding source will allow the researchers to continue testing participants to study the effects of the red tide toxin.

Barbara Kirkpatrick, manager of Mote's Environmental Health Program, said in a press release the renewed funding will help the study build on five years of work.

Kirkpatrick, working with Dr. Terry Kane at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, found that people living within a mile of the beach were admitted to the emergency room for respiratory problems during red tide at higher rates than people living farther away.

Although the study has shown a relationship between red tide and the admissions, the link needs to be verified, Kirkpatrick said.

"We still need to find a smoking gun, so to speak," Kirkpatrick said in the press release. "We need a biomarker that shows red tide exposure before we can know for sure if the increased admission rates are due to red tide exposures. Only then can we develop effective health guidelines for people."

In addition to UNCW and Mote, the other project participants include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Florida Department of Health, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami Beach and the University of Cincinnati.