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.