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Researchers: Conditions Ripe For Red Tide

WESH.com
POSTED: 11:22 AM EDT July 15, 2004

Researchers said the conditions are becoming ripe for a red-tide outbreak on both of Florida's coasts, but they have no idea where or when.

Frank Muller-Karger of the University of South Florida said there are "some interesting patches of algae out there."

He's backed by Gary Kirkpatrick at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, who said conditions are now "fairly typical of years when red tide has happened."

More than 100 bottlenose dolphins died from a red-tide outbreak off the Panhandle last spring. There have also been some swaths of algae noted off Tampa Bay and off southwest Florida.

Most red-tide outbreaks that show up off Florida's Atlantic coast begin in the Gulf of Mexico, then are carried around by the Gulf Stream.