Everything You Wanted to Know About Red Tides (2024)

FAQs

Everything You Wanted to Know About Red Tides? ›

The Short Answer: A red tide is an event that occurs on the coastline when algae—a plant-like organism—grows out of control. The name “red tide” comes from the fact that overgrown algae can cause the water to change color. Red tides can be hazardous to human health and sea life.

Karenia brevis is always present in our oceans, usually in small numbers, and only forms red tides when environmental conditions are just right for growth. Red tides often begin in late summer or early fall, and can last for days to months. Red tides move and change shape with ocean tides, currents and winds.

How Can Red Tide Make You Sick? Anyone who is exposed to the airborne red tide toxins is at risk for upper and lower respiratory symptoms including coughing, sneezing, runny nose, wheezing or shortness of breath.

Red tides represent one of the most serious threats to coastal ecosystems today. Most red tides result from the input of an excessive amount of nutrients from fertilizers, sewage, and soils of nearby land areas to bays, estuaries, and shallow seas.

How long does a red tide last? Red tides can last from days to months. The length of time that a plankton bloom continues depends on many things, such as available nutrients and sunlight, water temperature, changes in wind or surf conditions, competition with other species, and grazing by zooplankton and small fish.

A: Red tide is caused by microscopic algae (plant-like microorganism) called Karenia brevis or K. brevis.

You put it all together and you have the breakdown of the red tide producing odors, and the bacteria producing odors, and it makes it very stinky.” The “sulfurous, rotten, decaying” stench has remarkable carrying power as it wafts inland on sea breezes, Latz said.

Swimming in the ocean during low-level or moderate red tide is typically safe for most people, but it won't necessarily be a pleasant experience. Be careful if you're swimming in red tide waters and have open wounds; flush the wound with fresh water as soon as you can. If dead fish are present, stay out of the water.

Environmental: Responsible for large fish kills, leading cause of death of manatees ( an endangered species ) and blamed for many dolphin deaths. Health Ramifications: Can cause respiratory symptoms ( especially in sensitive populations like asthmatics ) and has been implicated in the cause of skin irritations.

An easy way to help prevent red tide is to limit use of fertilizer as the nutrients present in them feed the algae that cause red tide. You can also purchase our Discover Florida's Oceans plate to help preserve our oceans and protect the plants and animals that call it home.

What is the poisonous red tide? ›

What is red tide? Red Tide is caused by a "population explosion" of toxic, naturally occurring microscopic plankton (specifically, a subgroup known as dinoflagellates). "Blooms" of the poison-producing plankton are coastal phenomena caused by environmental conditions that promote explosive growth.

The term “red tide” is often used in the United States to describe a particular type of algal bloom common to the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and is also called “Florida red tide.” This type of bloom is caused by a species of dinoflagellate known as Karenia brevis, and these blooms occur almost annually along Florida ...

However, certain human activities are making them more frequent. Chemicals from farming, factories, sewage treatment plants and other sources can become dissolved in water on the land. This water, called runoff, eventually flows into the ocean and can cause algae to grow faster, leading to red tides.

Symptoms from breathing red tide toxins usually include coughing, sneezing, and teary eyes. For most people, symptoms are temporary when red tide toxins are in the air. Wearing a particle filter mask may lessen the effects, and research shows that using over-the- counter antihistamines may decrease your symptoms.

Red tides most often form in late summer and early fall and persist through winter to spring; see our table Over 100 years of Red Tides off Florida's West Coast.

They are most common off the central and southwestern coasts of Florida between Clearwater and Sanibel Island but may occur anywhere in the Gulf. Blooms are less common but do occur along the southeastern Atlantic coast as far north as North Carolina.

Tide Facts

The sun's gravitational force on the Earth is only 46 percent that of the Moon; Since tides can be viewed as shallow-water waves that travel across the ocean, their propagation speed is solely dependent on the ocean depth; The wavelength of a tidal wave is around 12,430 miles (roughly 20,000 kilometers);

Red tide is caused by microscopic organisms in the plankton, the drifting or weakly swimming sea life, that are the foundation of the ocean food chain. Specifically, dinoflagellates, a microscopic marine life form with two long slender appendages, are the organisms responsible for red tide.

Red tides have occurred in Florida long before human settlement, and severe red tides were observed in the mid-1900s before the state's coastlines were heavily developed.

K. brevis can be transported around the Gulf of Mexico as coastal waters move with winds and currents. Some red tides have even been carried by the Gulf Stream current into the Atlantic Ocean as far north as Delaware.