TITLE: Red tides, 'dead zones' harbingers for Gulf Coast
EST. PAGES: 1
DATE: 10/07/97
DOCID: SAEN219825
SOURCE: San Antonio Express-News; SAEN
EDITION: Final; SECTION: Editorial; PAGE: 06B
CATEGORY: Editorial
(Copyright 1997)
A red tide has killed millions of fish in the Texas Gulf Coast,
poisoned shellfish, sickened scores of humans - and baffled scientists.
That makes the gulf an excellent laboratory to study the red
tide, and scientists are trying to learn what triggers the microscopic
population explosion that manifests itself as a 300-yard red
swath along miles of coastline.
Is it, as experts at the University of Texas Marine Science
Institute in Port Aransas told the Corpus Christi Caller- Times,
the "result of an ongoing arms race between ancient armies
of zooplankton"?
Or, as they also theorize, is it human-related causes, such
as runoff and discharge from livestock or shrimp farms?
In spite of thousands of manhours and millions of research
dollars, scientists say they still know little about the red tides.
Short of pushing the panic button, the Gulf of Mexico needs
attention. A 3,000- square-mile "dead zone," where nothing
lives, was discovered off the Texas-Louisiana coast several years
ago.
The gulf's wetlands are home to 75 percent of North America's
waterfowl. Its waters produce nearly 40 percent of the U.S. commercial
fishery landings, and it annually yields 2.5 billion pounds of
fish and shellfish.
And gulf beaches are a haven for tourism, worth millions to
the Texas economy.
Red tides, dead zones and pollution from the Rio Grande and
other sources are harbingers of gulf deterioration. Policymakers
and scientists must rank protection of the gulf as a No. 1 priority.