Re-start START for real

“Historical references to fish kills and respiratory irritation suggest that blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis have been occurring in the Gulf of Mexico since at least the first Spanish explorers sailed in the Gulf …

“… Today, K. brevis blooms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico constitute one of the most predictable harmful algal blooms on earth …”*

In spite of that history and predictability, as a sign of the times (election season), typical whiny Americans (in this case, Floridians) are wailing at the political candidates to “do something” about red tide. They want government — or, rather, politicians — to eradicate a natural phenomenon that has been occurring for centuries, probably longer.

Ha. Who has confidence the federal politicians can pull that off? Or even state politicians?

We’ve seen this routine before.

Many longtime Longboaters likely will remember 1995, when a devastating red tide bloom engulfed Longboat and beyond. The stench was so bad it required everyone to put a kerchief over his or her mouth and nose, and the piles of dead fish rivaled those of today, if not worse. It was the same story: bad for the economy, bad for sea life, bad for everyone. Everyone griped about it.

Fortunately, one of Longboat’s commissioners at the time, a retired Air Force general and Vietnam hero, Gen. James Patterson, had enough. All everyone did was complain; no one took action. So Patterson and a small group of concerned citizens started START, Solutions to Avoid Red Tide, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to what its name said — finding ways to eradicate red tide before it did its damage. 

The key to its success, of course, would be money to fund research. And try as START’s dedicated members might, they couldn’t generate enough public or private interest. In its past three fiscal years, START has raised a measly $60,000 from private and government sources.

We all know how this works: We go from crisis to crisis, replacing the urgency of the first crisis with the urgency of the next one, forgetting the first one.

There was high interest to “do something” in 1996 after the outbreak, but as soon as the red tide dissipated, so did the enthusiasm (beyond START) to continue researching in earnest for solutions. 

Again, after the devastating 2005 red tide outbreak that covered more than 2,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, creating a massive sea life dead zone, red tide eradication efforts rose up the “do something” scale. But they subsided again when the algal bloom dissipated after February 2006.

Timing is everything, of course. And this time the red tide outbreak has struck at the right time — right before the elections. A made-for-candidates issue. 

But let’s watch how this plays out. Assuming red tide will be a memory by the time the Legislature meets in March, we’ll predict more of the same: There’ll be other crises and higher-profile issues occupying lawmakers’ agendas … guns, marijuana, public education, immigration, affordable housing subsidies, the environment (whatever that means), blah, blah, blah.

It’s always a question of priorities and choices.

As one wag told us, half-seriously and half-cynically: “Call in BP.” That private-sector company solved the 2010 Gulf oil spill — all the while paying out $60 billion in claims during the past eight years. Surely, it won’t take $60 billion to figure out how to contain red tide before it does as much damage as it has in the past.

Actually, there has been some progress on this front, in spite of the inability to obtain sustained funding. START reports three potential answers:

1) University of North Carolina Wilmington: “Scientists pre-treated clams with cysteine, an amino acid that naturally occurs in the Gulf of Mexico, prior to their exposure to a red tide bloom. The treated clams accumulated less than half as much brevetoxin than the untreated clams in the control group. Used as a preventative measure to treat clams removed from their beds before a bloom arrives, this process offers the possibility of an effective preventative program without the chance of an unforeseen negative environmental impact.”

2) “Julia Kubanek [at the Georgia Institute of Technology] has successfully used Skeletonema costatum, a phytoplankton native to the Gulf of Mexico, to reduce toxicity in waters infested with red tide. Her work demonstrates that proteins released by the organism detoxify red tide’s brevetoxins. This finding could lead to developing an enzyme-based additive or a protein-absorbent resin to remove waterborne toxins.”

3) “Large amounts of silica naturally flow into the Gulf of Mexico from Florida’s rivers every year. Through his research efforts, Jason Lenes [of the University of South Florida] has learned that areas in the Gulf with high amounts of silica are populated with diatoms, a non-food source for K. brevis. As the diatom population increases, it tends to crowd out Trichodesmium, a main nutrient source for red tide. This work could lead to ways of changing the nutrient mix that could shorten the length of red tide blooms.”

But here’s the sad kicker to those three efforts. START also reports: “Funding for the continuation of these promising studies has unfortunately been eliminated due to cuts in Florida’s budget.”

Back when Patterson started START, he invoked that frequently used phrase: If we can send a man to the moon, surely we can figure out a way to stop red tide from inflicting the damage that it does. 

This reminds us of Ben Franklin. In the early 1750s, fires were a problem in Philadelphia, often destroying homes. Franklin started the first mutual insurance company, to which residents contributed funds to cover their losses in the event of disaster.

Similarly, perhaps this is an occasion for businesses in this region, if not all the way up and down the Gulf Coast, to form a red tide mutual insurance company — part of whose funds would be used to finance those three research projects or other promising solutions. 

One issue of red tide insurance, of course, is the free-rider dilemma. While many Gulf Coast businesses likely would see the benefit of such an insurance company, others not paying into the insurance fund would benefit at the expense of the few paying the premiums.

Another approach simply might be a red-tide taxing district, similar to the St. Armands Business Improvement District. Its tax collections could be dedicated to two uses: research and eradication.

When we spoke to START board member and Longboat Mayor George Spoll this week, he lamented that at least 20,000 people have been involved in various ways in researching, writing papers, taking samples, etc. “But no one is coordinating this effort.” 

Spoll wants Longboat Key to take the lead. After all, it’s the birthplace of START. Good idea: Restart START. And just as Patterson said: Quit talking about it. “Do something.”

Just don’t count on state or federal lawmakers. They have higher priorities — getting re-elected.

* From: “The Gulf of Mexico ECOHAB: Karenia Program 2006–2012”; Cynthia A. Heil, Deborah A. Bronk, L. Kellie Dixon, Gary L. Hitchcock, Gary J. Kirkpatrick, Margaret R. Mulholland, Judith M. O’Neil, John J. Walsh, Robert Weisberg, Matthew Garrett