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Red Tide research opens new doors to detecting and predicting future blooms

Researchers at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium are testing ways to better identify and prevent red tide.

SARASOTA, Fla.- Red tide makes a trip to the beach uncomfortable, even miserable, with the coughing and scratchy throat it causes.

There’s also the smell from dead fish washing onshore.

Researchers at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium are testing a new type of face recognition software based on a cell’s shape and movement.

“Based on that we can identify and count red tide cells present even if there are other phytoplankton there,” said Dr. Richard Pierce, vice-president of research at Mote. “It’s not space science, it’s not atmospheric science, it’s far more complicated. We need much more in sensing devices to detect what’s happening all the time.”

As part of the research, engineers are updating a small tower of circuitry known as PHYSS, a submersible water tester.

“It has water going through here light coming up the optic fiber,” explained Jim Hillier, instrumentation specialist at Mote.

It can also identify unique pigment in red tide organisms and identify other algae red tide that is hanging around, Pierce said.

New information is sent remotely for scientists to study real time about that micro-algae community.

“The whole dynamics of phyto community is critically important to understand red tide blooms what makes them start and go away,” said Pierce.

A recent red tide bloom in Sarasota Bay clogged up canals with dead fish, sucking the oxygen out of the water and killing other marine life.

Mote is testing the same ozone filtration system used at its hospital to clear out red tide to restore the canals after a red tide bloom - reducing a process that could take months to a few hours.

“It’s restoring it to natural conditions so marine life can come back,” Pierce said.

Natural bio filters like sea squirts are also being looked at to filter red tide out of the water. Scientists are studying what happens to that toxin, what’s the toxin level in the bio filters and whether they can eliminate them back into the water.

“There’s a lot of out of the box ideas we have to be tested but we have to be very careful and make sure we don’t end up with something worse than red tide," Pierce said.

Researchers are also testing a hand sensor that can quickly identify two major toxins of red tide in the water and using chemicals released by some aquatic plants to fight off red tide.

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