By Terry Gibson

Florida’s lifeguards post warning flags for rough surf, jellyfish and sharks. But there are no flags indicating toxic cyanobacteria blooms or red tide (Karenia brevis), which have been poisoning the waters for the past year. Sadly, these events seem to be occurring more frequently, and lasting longer. Right now, heading into the prime fall surf season, massive blooms of both are attacking many of the state’s southern lineups. And there’s no end in sight.

And still, no flags.

Recreation aside, the blooms are killing massive quantities of marine life, from fish to sea turtles to manatees, and causing health problems in humans, as well. Many of the state’s southwestern beaches are blanketed in dead fish. Toxin levels are high enough to have potentially caused the death of a 23-foot whale shark that washed ashore on Sanibel Island last month, along with numerous dead dolphins in Sarasota County, while the manatee casualty count is reported to now be in the hundreds. (Lead photo: Florida Panhandle, by Jason Hines)

About 100 miles of Gulf-facing shoreline have been affected by the red tide event that began way back in October 2017. It has now entered Tampa Bay, prompting closures to shellfishing seasons.

According to Gulf Coast native and former CT stalwart Shea Lopez, the red tide has since migrated as far north as North Beach, near Clearwater. “We’re getting the usual monsoonal flow from the southwest,” he said. “It’s blown the red tide all the way up to Tampa Bay, which for now is blocking it from spreading north. Fingers crossed.”

Cam Rewinds, taken midday on a Sunday, one month apart at Twin Piers on Bradenton Beach, FL, just south of Tampa Bay, shows a stark contrast. Red tide’s effects are far-reaching and go far beyond the obvious environmental impacts. Think of the economic hit to coastal communities when beaches that should be filled are now deserted. (This Surfline cam is supported by the SECOORA WebCAT project, and is used to monitor rip currents and other coastal hazards.)

Live: Twin Piers, Bradenton Beach in Manatee County, FL

On Florida’s East Coast, issues with cyanobacteria are more localized but have had devastating effects on native wildlife and local businesses between Jupiter and Fort Pierce, while posing a risk to human health. People are strongly advised to stay out of the water in affected areas and to avoid inhaling toxic fumes. Though cyanobacteria and red tide occur naturally, and independently, scientists are now confirming what longtime surfers have long believed — that man’s actions play a significant role in all of this. But first, let’s meet the culprits:

1. Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are often referred to as “blue-green algae,” when the many species are, in fact, primitive bacteria that date back to the “primordial soup.” According to experts, cyanobacteria thrive in hot, nutrient-rich fresh and brackish water. When they encounter saltier water, the bacteria increase their production of toxins. As the saltwater kills them off, the cells release toxins into the water column and air, harming humans and wildlife. This can occur in areas where surfers and fishermen like to congregate, such as inlets. (See the latest algae sampling tests and results here from Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.)

The toxins can cause a litany of severe reactions, including skin irritations, cold/flu symptoms, eye irritation, nausea, vomiting, and even acute liver failure. Researchers are beginning to make a connection between a toxin found in cyanobacteria called BMMA and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

By depleting dissolved oxygen levels and releasing toxins, cyanobacteria can not only kill high numbers of different species of fish, but also larger, more resilient animals like manatees and sea turtles.

2. Red Tide (Karenia brevis)

Again, the species of red tide that occurs in Florida waters, Karenia brevis, is naturally occurring. Spanish explorers complained of suffering illnesses from its neurotoxins as far back as the 1500s. Most longtime Florida surfers have encountered red tide at some point in their lives. Red tide events can range from simple, off-colored whitewater to breathing difficulties when nearing the beach during extreme events.

Watch: Kelly Slater talk red tide with Anderson Cooper

Winds and currents sweep K. brevis cells from offshore into coastal waters, where they will bloom if conditions are suitable. Researchers say that the availability of nutrients is the primary factor that determines bloom size, toxicity and duration. Some agricultural interests argue that there’s no connection between land-based sources of nutrients and red tides, while many independent researchers scoff at the denial. (See the latest red tide status and location map here from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commision.)

Dr. Rick Bartelson, a researcher with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, and Dr. Larry Brand from the University of Miami say we’re seeing such vigorous blooms because of excess nutrients from watersheds and Lake Okeechobee runoff. “Anybody who’s grown a plant knows it needs fertilizer, and K. brevis is a plant,” said Dr. Bartelson, adding that, “You need a lot of nutrients to get red tide cell densities up to one million parts per liter, as we’re recording now off of Sanibel.”

Read: What is red tide?

Before humans had much of a presence in Florida, Bartelson explained that, “Historically, there were ten times more fish on nearshore reefs and in estuaries. Fish excrement along with nutrients from offshore springs fueled the blooms. What’s in the water today is mostly land-derived nutrients.”

3. The Lake Okeechobee Discharges

Once Lake Okeechobee levels get high enough to threaten its earthen dike that was built in the 1930s, water managers discharge lake water into East and Gulf Coast estuaries as flood-control. Presently, they cannot send the water south because the area south of Lake Okeechobee, which was once part of the slow-flowing Everglades River of Grass, is now tied up in agriculture.

Currently, water is allowed to flow into the lake through the Kissimmee River at an unnaturally swift pace, especially during wet seasons as extreme as this one has been. Even during years of modest rainfall, there is no place to store and treat the water so that it can flow where it’s needed in the southern Everglades and Florida Bay. So, the toxic water is sent east and west. Thanks to more than half a century of pollution and agricultural land use all around Lake Okeechobee — plus increasing deliveries of phosphorous and nitrogen from urban sprawl to the north of the lake in the Kissimmee River Valley — Lake Okeechobee is chock full of nutrients that feed larger and more frequent cyanobacteria blooms in the summer months. This summer, chartreuse blooms of cyanobacteria covered between 30 and 90 percent of the 730-square-mile lake.

On the Gulf Coast, the discharges are adding insult to injury, and fueling the red tide. Lake Okeechobee discharges are also sending billions of gallons of runoff daily to the Atlantic Coast — carrying nutrients and the cyanobacteria to estuaries, beaches and reefs along a biologically diverse, and surfing-rich, stretch of the Treasure Coast.

So where are we now?

The State recently declared a State of Emergency for seven Southwest Florida counties due to the impacts of red tide. This follows a State of Emergency in seven other South Florida counties due to cyanobacteria.

There are no reports of red tide on the Atlantic Coast to date, but the brown water and green cyanobacteria are still washing ashore more than six miles south of the St. Lucie Inlet, toward Hobe Sound, and an unmeasurable distance to the north toward Fort Pierce. In the St. Lucie River, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection stated that the cyanobacteria are now ten times too toxic to touch.

Live: View of Ft. Pierce Inlet

Keep in mind that the St. Lucie River pours into the Atlantic, close to the region’s best surf spots. “The toxic algae crisis in Florida should be a national wake-up call,” said Surfrider CEO, Dr. Chad Nelsen. “It’s a tragic example of what happens when you systematically ignore water quality regulations, fail to restore critical ecosystems like the Everglades, and allow corporate profits to trump the public interest. The unintended consequences, such as loss of major tourism dollars, are already making the crisis worse. What’s needed is strong statewide leadership that will pursue comprehensive reduction in nutrient pollution through tough regulations and major investment in restoration.”

The State of Florida and the EPA have yet to set and enforce water quality standards to prevent future disasters. Florida failed to meet a nutrient reduction deadline in 1992, then again in 2000, then set a 2015 deadline to keep phosphorous levels below 40 parts per billion.

“Those deadlines and TMDLs (Total Maximum Daily Loads) were set to keep Lake Okeechobee at phosphorous levels detected in the 1940s and ‘50s, before major harmful cyanobacteria blooms occurred on that vast water body,” said Dr. Paul Gray, Okeechobee Science Coordinator for Florida Audubon. “They were set expressly to avoid what we’re dealing with today.”

The State failed to meet the 2015 deadline, and phosphorous levels in Lake Okeechobee are ranging between 100 and 200 parts per billion.

“We’ve known and been saying for years that we must restore the Everglades, eliminate nutrient pollution from fertilizer and sewage, and stop using the atmosphere and oceans as dumping grounds for greenhouse gases” Shea Lopez finished. “This is unacceptable — to those of us that live here and try to make a responsible living off the water, and to the tourists we entice here.”

What You Can Do:

Tell state legislators (who to call in Florida) to enact strict nutrient pollution control requirements.

Tell Congress (who to call, all states) to restore the Everglades. The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would authorize essential Everglades Restoration Projects, is presently stalled in the Senate.

Tell Congress to pass the South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act of 2018. Introduced by Senators Bill Nelson (D-Florida) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida), it would direct a federal panel to assess the causes of harmful algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee and along Florida’s coasts, and to develop an action plan to address them.