Red Tide, Decoded: Why It Isn't Random, and How to Track It

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Today we're gonna be talking about red
tide.

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And I know it's it's a tough battle.

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You may not know what red tide is.

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You've probably heard a lot of the things,

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but I'm just gonna get a a bit of a
summary from someone I spoke to recently.

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Actually it was Monday's episode with Adam
Langley.

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He said one time he was on the beach and
him and his wife are on the beach,

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and all of a sudden, you know,

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without any warning, people were just
starting to like,

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you know, you didn't really smell
anything,

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but suddenly people started to cough
around them.

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And people like grabbing their towels and
just kind of leaving the area.

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And and they didn't really know what it
was at the time.

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They just thought, hey, like if
everybody's coughing,

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it's not just one particular individual,

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it's it's a a number of different
individuals.

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And then more and more people are starting
to cough.

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It's not necessarily that they have
asthma.

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Probably people who have asthma probably
feel it a little bit more,

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obviously, than others. But then you start
to cough you're like,

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something's not right. Like it doesn't
smell of anything,

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but there's something that's affecting my
breathing,

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and I'm not gonna stay in this area.

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So I'm gonna leave the beach. Beautiful
day on the beach.

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I'm gonna leave it and I'm gonna get out
of there,

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maybe call the authorities, be like
something is going on.

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That's red tide. And a lot of times it's
not it's not random.

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It can be trackable. And there's actually
a free tool that you can tell that

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can tell you before it even happens,

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and before you even leave the house.

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So you don't have to go through that and
you don't have to worry about going

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on the beach when there's a red tide.

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We're gonna talk all about what a red tide
is,

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why you should know about it, and that the
fact is that people are doing

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a lot of work to stop it from happening.

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And there is a way to stop it from
happening more often.

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than it has and I think that's the that's
the important part of

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of where we're talking about here.

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Because when we hear red tide or what what
scientists called harmful algal blooms

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or habs, we see this happening on a
regular basis,

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Because there is a specific algae called
carinia brevis,

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and it blooms in warm coastal waters and
produces a toxin known as brevitoxin,

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which is the toxin that you're pro like
that people are probably

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Smelling in the air. You know,

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the wind and the waves, they carry that
toxin into the air,

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which is why you start coughing on the
beach with no visible sign that that
really

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there's anything wrong, other than people
coughing on the beach when nobody should

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be, Because that's not a normal thing that
happens.

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Now it's worse for people with asthma or
any kind of respiratory conditions,

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but it can affect anyone standing close
enough to the water or even in the water,

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Now, in 2018 to 2019, the numbers like
were huge.

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And the losses were huge. They lost $2.7
billion over

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a year of disruption, To it, and and that
is not something that became like

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a rare occurrence like it normally did,

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but it's it's something that's really,

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really bad. why is this happening more
often than not?

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Carina Brevis, this this algae is
naturally occurring in the Gulf of Mexico

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in the Atlantic.

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And in between 2017 and 2019, the
southwest and southeast parts of Florida
were

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hit pretty much the worst they've ever
been hit before.

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Now, there have to be specific conditions
for Karina Brevis

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to really become overpopulated,

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which which makes the red tide.

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You'll see start to see in the water a
little bit of a reddish tint color,

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like a tan color or a rust color in the
water.

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But for sometimes it's really difficult to
tell until it's too late.

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Or until you start to feel that.

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Now, here's the thing. There needs to be
like the right amount of wind

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to bring the like a lot of Karina brevis
together to create the red tide.

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There needs to be heat in the water to I
guess be hospitable

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to the Karina brevist because it needs
heat.

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Heat is is helpful. But then it needs
something else which can be controlled.

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And we talked about it yesterday's episode
and we talked about it the day before.

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It's all about nutrients. There's specific
nutrients that when fed to phytoplankton,

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which is what these carina brevis are,

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they will bloom like crazy. And if you get
the right amount of mix of

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all three C sub C temperature,

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wind that brings them all together,

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and then feed them nutrients, you get a
massive red tide.

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If that happens over and over and over
again,

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so we we know we've seen high
temperatures.

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We know the winds are kind of gathering a
little bit.

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And we know nutrients in Florida over the
past five years,

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maybe more, probably eight to ten years,

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have been flowing into the river systems a
lot more.

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Right. So I want to just kind of give you
a picture of essentially what's happening,

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So the bloom has always been there,

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but it's the freshwater discharges that
come down from the Casalahache River.

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In Florida, carrying like decades of
nitrogen phosphorus from

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the Kissimmee Basin and Lake Okeechobee.

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I always say Okechibi, but it's
Okeechobee.

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And that's what we know happens.

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So all that nitrogen phosphorus,

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which are the nutrients that help animal
or plants' cells grow,

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like these plankton, these these
phytoplankton,

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So you follow from Lake Okeechobee,

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And you know that.

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It there's nutrients in there because
there's a lot of industry along that area,

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And that industry, even below it and above
it,

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dumps their waste, like we talked a little
bit yesterday.

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And for a while, that waste had to meet a
certain number.

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And that number has now changed to best
practices.

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So instead of hitting a certain,

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like you have to be below a certain number
in nitrogen,

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so ammonia, nitrate, nitrite.

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And phosphorus, now you can pretty much
put it whatever you want and say,

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hey, we're following best practices.

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We know companies, and there's a lot of
sugar companies that like

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big sugars known in Florida. There's a lot
of sugar companies out there,

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and we know that they're very important to
Florida's economy,

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but they will try and get away with pretty
much anything.

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Right. And so the fact is,

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is that once the state said, hey,

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best manager practices is great,

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you know, the

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Difference in the phosphorus amounts,

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where before when there was regulation,

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they were at about 25, Legal minimum.

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And they grew to about 55%. So that's
there's a there's a difference there,

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There's a a huge difference in the
numbers.

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So phosphorus grew ~ in availability,

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nitrogen grew in availability.

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And then what happens is because Lake
Okeechobee is dammed,

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once the spring rains come, it will
eventually fill up.

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And managers, water water managers,

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have to release this water that is full of
excess phosphorus

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and ex excess nitrogen. So then it'll grow
down the Kissmi Basin

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and it'll it'll flow down the Kalo Sachi
River and it'll go into the Gulf

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of Mexico or the Atlantic.

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Right, so these are the southwest Gulf of
Mexico,

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Southeast Atlantic areas. And then what
happens as those nutrients feed those
Carina

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bevis, like these red tide forming plant
plant cells,

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you get a red tide.

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the fact is that because the nitrogen and
phosphorus,

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aren't meeting what was met before,

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we are getting more red tides because
there's increased cease temperature

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and the winds are changing a lot more and
they're a lot stronger.

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So they bring this phytoplankton in,

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which is naturally occurring. They just
bring them into groups where

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you get to that, And I think this is where
I keep telling people that

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we can control.

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The amount of times we get red tide by
controlling what feeds them.

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We can't necessarily control sea
temperature at this point unless

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we reduce our carbon and greenhouse gas
output,

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which is obviously a lot harder than ever.

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But nitrogen can be controlled locally or
by state.

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That can be controlled. I've worked in
environmental consulting before.

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I worked in with a wastewater company
where we

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looked, we would do measurements to make
sure that they're following

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the regulations. And it would be,

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you know, provincial or state and federal
that would be looking at these

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and they would be reviewing them to make
sure they're under.

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And if they go above, you know,

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they the government works with them to
say,

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hey, you need to keep this down because
they had to follow the law.

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That was part of the regulation.

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So I think that the thing is here where
everybody's like,

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well, we get more red tide. Like we're
seeing,

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you know, the coast of Florida at a
certain times like disgusting

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and there's there's dead animals
everywhere and sometimes sea turtles

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and

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And manatees and dolphins and and fish
everywhere.

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They're just dead. It's disgusting.

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It's gross. I'm never, I don't want to go
there.

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How we can't even control this.

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We can control it. That's the funny thing.

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It's not a random thing, It's not a
mystery that strikes without a pattern.

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Like we know what's happening.

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We know how to stop it. We know how to
starve this animal from growing

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to a point where it becomes a red tide.

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And I think that's the big turn in this
story.

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That's the thing that.

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can help us bring the red tide anxiety
down a little bit.

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I know it helps me because I know what
needs to be done.

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Right. I know that if we start to get
governments on point and say,

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hey, we need to protect our coastlines,

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our water quality is going to crap because
we haven't been holding companies

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and industries who who put out this stuff.

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And it's not necessarily like it's bad
stuff.

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Like they provide products that we use.

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So it's it's hard to say that we're
against them.

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I don't want to vilify them, but we need
to make sure that they their point sources

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that come out have to fall with it below a
number.

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And that's where these wastewater
engineers kind of do all this modeling

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to make sure that if everybody stays
within a certain range,

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then our system will be fine. That's all
it takes.

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It's money, yes. It's money worth
spending,

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I guarantee you. I think that's where.

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A lot of people just don't realize that
it's this is what happens.

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this is how we change. And I think if you
go back to yesterday,

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where the red tide is like the the
dramatic visible symptom of that same
excess

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nitrogen story that we talked about what I
talked about,

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how coastal environments, coastal habitats
like mangroves,

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marshes are the are nature's kidneys.

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Healthy coastal wetlands will help filter
nitrogen out of the water.

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But like just to go back to it,

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the big sugar wanted to remove some
Everglades to put in a new plant.

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The Everglades are that coastal habitat
that removes the excess nitrogen.

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So instead of like emptying right into the
Everglades,

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they empty out into a river system that
goes right into the Gulf.

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Makes no sense. And so there's ways that
we can actually figure out

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how to change our water quality.

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Now, in the meantime, there is a bloom
tracker.

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There is a red tide bloom tracker.

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So if you are in Florida or you are in an
area where you want to go to the beach,

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you want to make sure you don't have to be
subjected to that.

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Maybe you have some asthma problems or
respiratory problems,

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or you just don't want to go there when
it's going be nasty.

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There is a beach conditions reporting
system that,

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People have if you're on the Gulf Coast.

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And so there are ways you can find out.

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You can just track this. You can look it
up.

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I'll try and look it and put a the link in
the show notes that you can find.

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But for now, you can look at that.

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But really, like this is where we elect
government officials that will promise

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to make sure they hold industry
accountable to ensure that we are

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not putting excess nitrogen in the water.

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that's pretty much what it is.

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We have the

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knowledge.

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We have the system to put in place.

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We have the regulation. It's just a matter
of keeping industries

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to that regulation and not giving them
what they want in terms of they don't have

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to spend extra money on making sure that
they can put that into place

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and they less headache for them.

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But no, ~ sorry, it's a headache for you,

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but it's life to us. That's really what it
comes down to,

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Businesses do not run the world.

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They think they want to, they think they
can,

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but it really is the people. We are the
people.

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We need to hold them accountable through
government.

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Government needs to hold accountable.

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Elect the people who hold them
accountable.

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That's what we need to do. That's my
that's that's my my call to action

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for you today. ~ and especially in the US
where Florida is located,

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there's a important elections coming up.

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This is where you make those elections
count.

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I know there's like a bigger picture here
for a lot of people from

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a federal perspective, but think about
locally of what's happening to

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you and make sure that those ~ state,

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whether they're Senate.

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Or Congress people, they are looking out
for what's local for you and not what's,

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you know, federally always for the the the
overall country that may not

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be in your interest, Whether you're on one
side or the other,

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this is still nature. This is still where
you live.

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You want to make sure ~ you are living in
a healthy coastal area so

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you can enjoy the coast because that's
where you want to live,

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And that's the beauty about living in
places like Florida.

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So, anyway, that's it for the episode
today.

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I would love to hear your comments.

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If you're watching this on YouTube.

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Let me know in the comments below if
you're watching this or listening to this,

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sorry, on Spotify or Apple or your
favorite podcast app.

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Spotify, you can leave a comment,

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which I love. So please leave a comment.

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Love to hear what you think. Or if you
have a question,

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love to hear your thoughts. but other than
that,

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you can hit me up on my socials,

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links in the show notes. Thank you so much
for joining me on today's episode

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of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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Have a great day. We'll talk to you next
time and happy conservation.