Disclaimer: These postings were sent to us from a variety of media sources over the Internet. The content has not been reviewed for scientific accuracy or edited in any manner.
Black water: Fishermen, scientists slam state for slow reaction to mystery Sunday, April 7, 2002
By CATHY ZOLLO, crzollo@naplesnews.com
Naples Daily NewsCriticism grew this week from fishermen and scientists who claim the state failed to act sooner on reports of a mysterious cloud of black water that covered most of western Florida Bay in recent months.
Researcher Brian LaPointe, senior scientist at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, said he is astonished at the lack of scientific data collected about the water.
"Given all the millions of dollars that the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), the (South Florida Water Management District) and the state have to monitor that area, the silence is deafening," LaPointe said.
And Bob Jones, spokesman for the Southeastern Fisheries Association, a commercial fishing trade organization, said the state is dismissing the black water phenomenon to protect the tourism industry.
They say recent scrambling by state agencies under the direction of the Florida Marine Research Institute is too little too late for answers that might offer solutions or the barest of explanations about what caused the black water.
"I would certainly like to know enough about it to see if we can prevent it in the future," said Greg DiDomenico, executive director of Monroe County Commercial Fishing, a Keys fishing trade organization.
Already, fishermen and others say the state dropped the ball by skipping opportunities to study the water. Florida officials admit knowing about it in January.
Caught between anger and resignation, fishermen are jokingly calling the phenomenon anti-fouling water because it strips crab traps of plant growth as if they were dipped in mild acid.
Fishermen say they've never seen anything like it, despite claims from state officials that the black water phenomenon is likely a large and natural algae bloom and not harmful to fish.
"Marine life collectors have been out and they seem alarmed," DiDomenico said. "They are very reputable and certainly experienced folks."
Among them is Don DeMaria, a Keys marine life collector who has noted widespread destruction of some bottom species in flats off Summerland Key.
"It doesn't look good," DeMaria said. "This is a time when the water is cold (and clear) and things should be looking healthy."
Satellite images from January show the water stretching for hundreds of square miles and eclipsing western Florida Bay. But the research institute didn't launch its investigation into the water until late March after media reports and demands from fishermen that the state take action.
"We're deeply concerned," Jones said. "And I'm wondering if they have enough basic data and enough water samples and a library that they can share. We need to know more than I've been able to find out."
Jones said he's heard from many Keys fishermen and divers reporting not only extensive damage to many bottom dwelling species in the black water's wake but also the worst season anyone can remember for some large fish species.
Fishermen in the Keys don't bother calling it a bad season.
"I don't think there can be any dispute that we didn't have a mackerel season at all," DiDomenico said.
Government officials say there won't be landing reports available for six months on what the catch was during the phenomenon. They do say that the black water is a large diatom bloom, though they can't say what brought it on.
LaPointe, who has been studying algae in the area for decades, has his own ideas.
He said there's no way this late in the game to absolutely link the black water to nitrogen-rich runoff from Florida's sugar industry, but said the runoff has certainly done its share of harm to other parts of Florida Bay.
He said he has the data to prove the nitrogen-rich water dumping fueled algae growth that has killed off thousands of acres of sea grass and muddied the once "gin clear" waters of the bay. That's happened since the state abandoned pumping water from sugar cane fields into a dying Lake Okeechobee and began sending it south to Florida Bay via the Taylor Slough and the Shark River in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Chlorophyll amounts collected by Florida International University during a routine sampling cruise in early January shows the largest concentration of chlorophyll - an indicator of algae growth - ever documented just off the mouth of the Shark River. It closely matches the plume of black from satellite pictures of the same time that shows black water coming off the Shark River, though state officials insist the bloom is unrelated to runoff.
LaPointe said if there was a discharge, it was nitrogen rich because it would have built up over the long dry spell that came before heavy rains in December flushed the area.
Crossing the Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys on Saturday, he noted the murky, dark green remnants of the black water and said it's what he'd expect following a release of nitrogen-laden water.
LaPointe said low light from the dark water or low oxygen could account for the anti-fouling effects of the water noted by fishermen as well as the possibility it contained a toxin.
Though daytime testing by the state and Mote Marine Laboratory's Tropical Research Center in Summerland Key shows normal oxygen levels with the water, LaPointe said the bloom would actually rob the water of oxygen at night because of its breathing cycle.
Beverly Roberts, research administrator for FMRI, said there were no plans she knew of to test the water for oxygen at night.