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BLACK WATER, UNKNOWN CAUSE - USA (FLORIDA): REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

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Date: 19 Mar 2002
From: lurker <beruvian@worldnet.att.net>
Source: Naples News
<http://www.naplesnews.com/02/03/napels/d599686a.htm>

Commercial fishermen along the south west Florida coast are reporting a massive dead zone almost devoid of marine life in an area of the Gulf of Mexico, traditionally known as a rich fishing ground. They've dubbed it "black water", and have called local, state, and national government agencies to investigate.

Scientists who have heard of the phenomenon say they need answers too."It's killed a lot of the bottom because recently a lot of little bottom plants are coming to the surface dead and rotten out in the Gulf," said Tim Daniels, 58, a Marathon Key fish-spotting pilot who has been flying over the Gulf for more than 20 years. Experienced fishermen say they've often seen red tide but they've never seen anything like this "it doesn't have a foul smell, it isn't red tide and it isn't oil. They describe it as viscous and slimy water with what looks like spider webs in it."

First sighted in January, the mass of black-colored water reached from 20 miles north of Marathon Key halfway to Naples. It stretched west almost 20 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

Though somewhat smaller now than descriptions from January, the mass of water is still quite large and is moving into the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a 2800 square-mile sanctuary adjacent to the Keys, which is the largest coral reef in the United States. It includes the productive waters of Florida Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the ecosystem is an extensive nursery, feeding, and breeding ground, supporting a variety of marine species and a multimillion dollar fishing industry bringing in almost 20 million pounds of seafood each year.

Billy Causey, superintendent of the sanctuary, told the Naples Daily News recently that there is real concern in the scientific community about the overall health of the Gulf. Causey said contributing to the problems afflicting the shallow body is global warming, extended periods when the Gulf waters aren't cooling in the winter, and the growing impact of human activity along coastlines. Those problems, beginning in the early 1980s, include more frequent and longer lasting coral bleaching events that by 1990 were affecting stouter coral reefs closer to shore and more adapted to wide temperature swings.

"There are places that are still beautiful but the shallow reefs would make you cry," said Causey, a Keys diver since the 1950s. Scientists with Mote Marine Laboratory based in Sarasota said they are aware of the black water phenomenon but have not yet been able to test water samples. Mote is willing to send out testing kits to fishermen who might encounter the black water zone but, in the absence of a kit, fishermen could put a sample in a clean bottle and keep it in a cool, dark place until they could get it to a lab.

Daniels said he first noticed the black water when he went out in mid-January, ahead of kingfish season, to see what fishermen had in store for 2002. When he was flying over water that was 50 feet deep and north of the Keys, Daniels began to notice a change in the water color. When pilots from the air see boats move through a red tide zone, they often cut the reddish or brownish water to reveal green below. That doesn't occur in the black water. "This (dark) stuff goes all the way to the bottom," Richardson said. Boats that have 4 to 5 feet of hull below the surface cut through 35 to 40 feet of water and leave nothing but the same black water in their wakes. It's the same at depths of 15 feet, he said.

Along with the newly discovered black water and coral bleaching, there have been other problems with the Gulf having been documented for years. They include a New Jersey-sized dead zone coming off the Mississippi River outlet to the Gulf that consumes a larger area each summer. There are incidences of a contamination known as fibro papilloma [any information about this condition? - Mod.SH] in green turtles that live in Florida Bay. There are other problems in shrimp and an entire marine ecosystem appears to be sick.

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