TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Governor Rick Scott announced that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is partnering with world-renowned red tide experts to conduct field experiments to mitigate the effects of red tide.
This partnership, which will focus on using a form of specialized clay to quell the effects of red tide, includes experts and scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mote Marine Laboratory, the University of South Florida and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Red tide is naturally-occurring algae that has been documented along Florida’s Gulf Coast since the 1840’s and occurs nearly every year. For more information on red tide in Florida, click HERE.
“In Florida, when we are faced with challenges, we take action to engage innovative solutions that best fit our needs – and our fight against red tide is no different,” said Gov. Scott.
“I am proud today to announce that through the FWC, Florida will once again lead the way in research and action on red tide. This partnership of world-renowned scientists is an important step forward as we look for ways to mitigate the impacts of red tide and help our impacted communities quickly recover.”
“In August, I declared a state of emergency in response to red tide and secured a disaster declaration from the Small Business Administration. I have also directed $13 million in grant funding to help our communities impacted by red tide and blue-green algae and provided $1.2 million to help expand FWC’s redfish hatchery. We will continue to provide every possible resource to those impacted by red tide and I will never stop fighting for our coastal communities.”
Eric Sutton, FWC Executive Director, said, “FWC is committed to working with worldwide experts to test cutting-edge ways to potentially treat red tide. The fact that it is a natural occurrence and of such a wide scale creates an enormous challenge. However, if we do not take action to explore innovative techniques, we can never advance the discussion on the feasibility of managing red tide.”
In August, Governor Scott issued Executive Order 18-221 declaring a state of emergency due to impacts of red tide. To date, Governor Scott has directed grant funding totaling $13 million for communities impacted by red tide and blue-green algae.
This is in addition to the $1.2 million announced for FWC’s redfish hatchery, $100,000 for Mote Marine Laboratory’s red tide response, and $500,000 for VISIT FLORIDA to create an emergency grant program to assist local tourism development boards in counties affected by the naturally-occurring red tide.
Red tide occurs around the world and through decades of research, scientists are gaining a better understanding of this organism, but there is still much more to be learned. One of the areas of research is the potential to mitigate or manage the effects of blooms. While the use of clays to combat red tide has been a topic of discussion for many years, only recently have leading scientists developed a new form of specialized clay that they believe may help control red tide with fewer impacts to the ecosystem. These experiments will be conducted in a controlled environment and will have the ability to be scaled up depending on the success of these methods.
These field experiments using clay are in addition to the ongoing field experiment initiated by Mote Marine using ozonation – a process that uses ozone to destroy the algae and its toxins.