Die-off in Indian River Lagoon killing dolphins, manatees
Source: Tampa Bay Times
Die-off in Indian River Lagoon killing dolphins, manatees
CRAIG PITTMAN
Tampa Bay Times
Sunday, June 16, 2013 4:30am
The Indian River Lagoon on Florida's east coast has long been known as the most diverse ecosystem in North America. Its 156 miles of water boasts more than 600 species of fish and more than 300 kinds of birds.The lagoon is not just an ecological treasure. To the towns along its edge — Titusville, Cocoa, Melbourne, Vero Beach and Stuart, among others — it accounts for hundreds of millions in revenue from angling, boating, bird-watching, tourism and other waterfront activities.
But these days the Indian River Lagoon has become known as a killing zone.
Algae blooms wiped out more than 47,000 acres of its sea grass beds, which one scientist compared to losing an entire rainforest in one fell swoop. Then, beginning last summer, manatees began dying. As of this past week, 111 manatees from Indian River Lagoon had died under mysterious circumstances. Soon pelicans and dolphins began showing up dead too — more than 300 pelicans and 46 dolphins so far.
How bad is it? In the past week, a dolphin a day has turned up dead in the lagoon, according to Megan Stolen, a research scientist at Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute.
"When you lose the manatees, pelicans and dolphins, you know something is going on," said Marty Baum of Indian Riverkeeper, a nonprofit environmental group that tries to act as a steward for the lagoon and the Indian River that flows into it. Yet so far nobody can name the killer. Biologists have some suspicions but are baffled about any connection among the species. The diets are different: Manatees are vegetarians, while pelicans and dolphins eat fish. The symptoms are different: The manatees' stomachs are stuffed, while the pelicans and dolphins are emaciated.
Baum's family has lived around the lagoon since the 1860s but he can't remember anything like this ever happening.
The lagoon has had algae blooms before. None of them were like the one that hit it in 2011. Experts called the explosion of the greenish Resultor species a "superbloom" because it covered nearly 131,000 acres and lasted from early spring to late fall. Then came the "brown tide" algae bloom last summer, tinting the water a chocolate brown. The algae, aureoumbra lagunensis, have been a recurring problem in Texas. Why it suddenly showed up in Florida is another mystery. The algae blooms shade out sunlight needed by sea grass. By the time they were done the lagoon had lost more than half its sea grass, essential to nurturing fish and other marine species.
Then came what Pat Rose of the Save the Manatee Club called "a cascade of events."
The mysterious manatee die-off began in the northern part of the lagoon last July, hit its peak around March and now produces another dead manatee about every two weeks, according to Martine DeWit of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Biologists at a state laboratory in St. Petersburg examine every dead manatee that's found in Florida for a cause of death. But the Indian River Lagoon manatees have them stumped. The manatees appeared to have abruptly sickened and drowned. Normally manatees eat sea grass. With much of the sea grass gone, the manatees turned to eating a red sea weed known as gracilaria. However, so far there is no sign that played any role in their deaths, DeWit said. The lab is continuing to test for viruses, pollutants or something else.
Similar tests are being run on the dead pelicans and dolphins. Stolen of Hubbs-Sea World said the dolphin die-off first became evident in January and has not let up since.
More at link....
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/die-off-in-indian-river-lagoon-killing-dolphins-manatees/2127017
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reusrename
(1,716 posts)Algae bloom my ass. What did everyone think would happen. It's Love Canal out there now.
rwsanders
(2,685 posts)The USFWS seems to have decided that 1% of a species historic population is a "recovery". Incidents like this show why it isn't enough, if anything happens it can threaten the species with immediate extinction.
And manatees are the only species in this predicament. The gray wolf has lost ESA protections to satisfy the cowards out west.
But watch, the end result will be that the die off will be blamed on red tide, a parasite, or bacterial infection. There was a die off of dolphins on the US east coast years ago and Pierre Beland who is an environmental toxicologist was furious because there was no investigation as to why the dolphins succumbed to the parasite. He recognized that it would only happen if their immune system was comprimised by chemical contamination and encouraged testing to prove it, which of course was never done.
Just another part of the slow motion train-wreck which is our environment. Very distressing to watch.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)
JCMach1
(27,873 posts)reusrename
(1,716 posts)
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)restore the gulf and the entire ecosystem or make whole those who have been wronged. Nor, apparently, will they ever be made to. :/
Socialistlemur
(770 posts)Most of the state of Florida is a peninsula, the underlying rocks are carbonates formed by chemical deposition. The northern part of the state, including the florida panhandle, was also underwater at one time, but it is a bit different. This is why most of the state is low lying, the carbonate rocks were deposited when sea water covered the region.
The peninsula runs roughly north south. The West Coast faces the Gulf of Mexico, the East Coast faces the Atlantic. Cocoa beach is on the Atlantic coast. Nearby is the NASA site called Cape Kennedy. The site was picked to allow rockets to launch and move over the ocean as they ascend, this allows the boosters and any debris from exploding craft to fall in the Atlantic.
Algal blooms require a lot of nutrients in the water, such as phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizers. These come from onshore water runoff, not from the ocean. Florida is wet, it rains, it has swamps, and rain water is always flowing gradually to the sea. Therefore influx of nutrients coming from the sea into a lagoon is difficult.
Once an algal bloom takes place, the water tends to be oxygen depleted and this kills the fish. It also leads to other imbalances which weaken birds and mammals which feed on these fish.
The key to avoid these excessive blooms is to reduce the use of fertilizer, and to avoid putting phosphates in the water.
reusrename
(1,716 posts)I can throw a rock from where I sit right now and hit Turnbull Bay.
We have always used fertilizers here, at least for all of my life, and we have had red tides here in the past that would make your eyes water miles from the beach.
No one has ever seen anything like this before.
But yeah, your right, nothing to see here... move along folks..
Socialistlemur
(770 posts)Do a search with the words
Fertilizers
Lagoon
Algae
De oxygenation
reusrename
(1,716 posts)I think a more meaningful endeavor would be to search the following:
PCB+Love Canal
dioxin+Agent Orange.
The fertilizer/algae theory omits a certain known fact in order to make it believable.
The captains of industry dumped their toxic waste into the largest fishery left in this hemisphere because it was too expensive to dispose of and it was too dangerous to keep the stuff around and they already understand that the public can be easily fooled into believing any nonsense at all if the alternative is so horrific that it shocks the conscience of moral human beings.
Now, you can willingly overlook that fact, but I beg you not to.
Just for some supporting evidence, this strange kill-off is exactly what the known science predicted would happen on exactly this timetable.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)vastly underestimating the amount that was released. But, yeah, the fertilizer problem is *the problem. Monsanto and big Ag won't let that get in the way of continuing unabated, though. 
reusrename
(1,716 posts)They have not yet identified the cause, it's a big mystery!
They do breathe air, you know, and manatees don't eat fish.
JCMach1
(27,873 posts)this is probably the more mundane and problem we have in the state with fertilizer run-off... Not as exciting, but a likely candidate which has accelerated what would be an otherwise natural algae bloom and turning it into something horrific.
ReRe
(10,639 posts)K&R
... Wonder if anyone has bothered to see how the health is of those who live along this lagoon. Stands to reason, that if the sea life is dying along the lagoon, that the health of the communities might be affected too? The reporter could have called the CDC to check that out, no? And Rick Scott vetoed a $2million bill that would help to figure out what is going on and how to reverse it's affects. That's a Republican for you. But will the people remember this at election time? Ha. Not only will the state be losing tourist dollars (who would want to go there???), but they might have some residents thinking about moving out of state. So sad. Thanks, SugarShack, for the OP...
RandiFan1290
(6,338 posts)I'm sure it'll be fine
leftyladyfrommo
(19,282 posts)We are going to lose a bunch of them that can't survive in this human dominated world.
It's so sad. We just don't see that we are really killing ourselves, too.
reusrename
(1,716 posts)
WovenGems
(776 posts)To live a successful life a specie must live far from humans. And that is becoming true for individual humans as well. We are nasty in large groups.
JCMach1
(27,873 posts)due to fertilizer run-off and less water-flow due to overdevelopment.
I just visited Salt Springs in the Ocala National Forest just a few weeks ago. The natural Eel grass is being choked by hydrilla and algae.
It is likely that the lagoon is being hit with something like this... less freshwater in the lagoon and a bad dose of run-off coupled with the algae blooms.
So sad.
reusrename
(1,716 posts)If the die-offs are related, then it really has never been seen before.
I know the manatees spend winter in the springs, and the reports say the dead ones are fat and have full bellies. And they breath air. And so do birds and porpoise.
It's pretty common for the lagoons around here to get hit with algae blooms and to even have some fish die off.