{"id":122936,"date":"2021-09-13T10:07:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T14:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=122936"},"modified":"2021-09-13T12:04:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T16:04:28","slug":"scientists-work-to-ensure-solutions-to-red-tide-dont-cause-more-harm-than-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/scientists-work-to-ensure-solutions-to-red-tide-dont-cause-more-harm-than-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Work to Ensure Solutions to Red Tide Don\u2019t Cause More Harm than Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of experts from Florida and Massachusetts are evaluating a technique that may help eliminate the algae blooms that cause massive fish kills, stink up neighborhoods and disrupt the Florida economy.<\/p>\n

A recent large-scale experiment promises a deeper understanding of how marine life responds to a red tide mitigation technique called clay flocculation.<\/p>\n

Red tides generate massive fish die-offs along some of Florida\u2019s most famous beaches, impacting tourism hotspots like Sanibel and Captiva islands, which lost $8 million<\/a> in revenue in 2018. Prolonged exposure is also linked to respiratory distress in humans.<\/p>\n

To date there is no verified method to eradicate and prevent the red tide algae blooms. But spraying a clay mixture on top of the water has been shown to weigh down the algae and drag it to the ocean floor. The efficacy of the method and what happens next to the algae and the clay is also part of the study.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a routine harmful algal bloom solution in parts of Asia, but uncertainty about its long-term environmental impacts has kept it from widespread use in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure the cure doesn\u2019t do more harm than the disease,\u201d says UCF Assistant Professor of Biology<\/a> Kristy Lewis. She is working with scientists from the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. WHOI Senior Scientist Don Anderson leads the project and UCF doctoral student Victoria Roberts, a member of the Lewis Lab of Applied Coastal Ecology<\/a>, also played a key role in developing and designing the experiment as part of her dissertation.<\/p>\n

Initial testing of the environmental effects of clay flocculation took place in July through a controlled experiment at Mote Marine Laboratory\u2019s Aquaculture Park in Sarasota, Florida. Researchers recreated the bottom of Sarasota Bay across nine large tanks, complete with sand, seagrass, and invertebrate marine life, such as urchins, clams, and crabs. The algae Karenia brevis <\/em>was next introduced to create a red tide, followed by application of the clay.<\/p>\n