What is Red Tide?

[fishfather]

[left][font "Times"][size 2] [size 3]Red tides are naturally occurring populations explosions, called blooms, of reddish-brown phytoplankton (microscopic algae) in the sea, often in coastal waters. Most red tides are harmless, but a few species of phytoplankton cause red tides that are poisonous to marine animals and to humans. Of the more than 60 different species of phytoplankton that cause red tides, only four or five have been identified as toxic.[/size][/size][/font][/left] [left][font "Times"][size 3]Red tides are not new. The first of the 10 plagues of Egypt, described in Exodus, may be one of the earliest recorded instances of a red tide ("... and all the waters that were in the river turned to blood. And the fish that were in the river died, and the water stank ..."). Red tides occur on both sides of the Atlantic, off Florida, and along the Pacific coast into Alaska.[/size][/font][/left]
[signature]

[gvanzant]

fishfather: Good explanation. To we locals Red Tides have been around since we can remember. To us it means steady winds offshore and cold water. Although the thickness of the "red"is usually only inches thick, sometimes it gets so thick it might go down 4 to 5 feet. In the 1980's it killed off every mussel in Alamitos Bay along with hundreds of octopus and fish.The smell was unbelievable. The redness is actually dead and decaying plankton which depletes all the oxygen in the area which causes the fish to drown. If you note the drift of the red it builds in LA Harbor where it stagnates from lack of sufficient ocean currents to disperse it.
[signature]