Red Tide Rising: Pollution's Latest Attack on New York Harbor

[bababooey]

Red Tide Rising: Pollution's Latest Attack on New York Harbor



By BRIAN THOMPSON (http://stripersandanglers.com/results/?keywords=%22BRIAN+THOMPSON%22&author=y&sort=date)

Updated 9:46 PM EDT, Tue, Sep 7, 2010



A ten mile long slick of "red tide" first reported by the Coast Guard (http://stripersandanglers.com/topics?topic=U.S.+Coast+Guard) in New York Harbor (http://stripersandanglers.com/topics?topic=New+York+Harbor)'s Upper Bay on Labor Day (http://stripersandanglers.com/topics?topic=Labor+Day) seemed to have mostly dissolved 24 hours later.

But the waters under and south of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge still had a distinct reddish hue as NY-NJ Baykeeper boat captain Rick Jacks (http://stripersandanglers.com/topics?topic=Rick+Jacks) piloted his boat through the soupy mixture.
"This is certainly more red than I'm used to seeing," said Jacks, 56, who has piloted boats on the harbor for 45 years, since he was 11 years old.
But the New Jersey DEP is still trying to figure out what people are seeing.

[/URL]



http://media.nbcnewyork.com/images/160*120/Red-Tide-Ver.jpg
WATCH (javascript:void(0);) Red Tide under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.




"We have not made a determination what this this is," said DEP spokesman Larry Hajna (http://stripersandanglers.com/topics?topic=Larry+Hajna).
He added, "There are many species of reddish brown algae" and not all of them are toxic, as first feared by the Coast Guard in its release on Labor Day.
In fact, several studies by the NJ DEP over the years point to past red tides in New York Harbor, as well as in Barnegat Bay far to the south. Some were toxic, and others were not.
The DEP cited one ocean outbreak of a particular strain of red tide (these organisms are usually algae or phytoplankton) at least a decade or more ago that killed hundreds of bottle nose dolphins, many of which washed ashore in New Jersey.
In this latest instance, the DEP will be taking samples to try to determine which species caused the outbreak, and whether it is toxic or not, according to Hajna.
So what causes the blooms of these naturally occurring organisms that then become red or brown (the two predominant colors) tides?
Major reasons are "storm water runoff, too many nutrients going into the water from fertilizers, from human activities (that includes nitrogen and phosphorous left over from treating human waste)," according to NY/NJ Baykeeper Debbie Mans.
"We need to change the way we're behaving in this watershed," Mans argued.


[URL]http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Red-Tide-Rising-Pollutions-Latest-Attack-on-New-York-Harbor-102380654.html

[plugaholic]

Major reasons are "storm water runoff, too many nutrients going into the water from fertilizers, from human activities (that includes nitrogen and phosphorous left over from treating human waste)," according to NY/NJ Baykeeper Debbie Mans.


The same thing is happening in the Chesapeake. I read where all the fertilizer runoff is causing problems with the oxygen levels.

[stripermania]

Red Tide May Not Be Source of Algae Bloom

Last week, a stretch of water in and around New York Harbor had a reddish-brown color that was believed to be red tide algae. However, officials on Thursday said that it was not red tide and it was actually harmless, according to a report by the New York Times. The 10-mile-long stretch of algae was probably the nontoxic phytoplankton Mesodinium rubrum, according to New Jersey officials.

“Red tide is a term frequently used to refer to toxic phytoplankton blooms,” the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said. “However, most algae blooms with a reddish hue are not toxic.”
New York officials, however, say that they are unsure as to what the algae is. “We did not see any of the red algae that was titled Mesodinium rubrum,” an agency spokesperson said.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/42406/