Red tide: dangerous when hungry
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTE
This is the Karenia bravis cell, which is responsible for the red tide blooms that threaten marine life along gulf beaches.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTE
A red ritde air filter is set up along a Sarasota County beach to monitor the air during a red tide bloom.
FILE PHOTO
In this dramatic aerial shot taken years ago, the red tide can be seen as a dark red color creeping up on the coast.
Starving a fever may or may not work on humans but starving red tide can prove deadly.
The harmful algae becomes “two to seven times more toxic when levels of phosphorus, a major algal nutrient found in fertilizers and human waste, are low,” according to a recent North Carolina State University study of Karenia brevis algae (the cause of red tide) by oceanographer Rance Hardison.
