Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By LINDA GIBSON
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2000
TAMPA -- Hillsborough Bay is having one of its biggest red algae blooms in years, partly because of drought.
The bloom isn't visible from the shoreline, but from the air it can be seen from Ballast Point to Apollo Beach and northward.
First noticed in mid-August, it's a bloom of unusual size and duration.
"It's spectacular," said Richard Boler, a scientist with the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission.
He's referring to the sight of it. Its presence, first noticed in mid-August, is a cause for concern.
"It's an indication of stress on the environment," Boler said.
Fortunately, this type of algae is not toxic. It isn't the same as Red Tide, which can cause allergic reactions in people and litter beaches with dead fish.
This particular algae, Ceratium hircus, thrives on nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Usually, stormwater runoff containing phosphate fertilizer from yards flows into the bay year-round, preventing a buildup of the algae.
This year, however, a lot of runoff got dumped into the bay all at once when heavy rains ended months of no rainfall at all.
Add other factors that help algae thrive -- lots of sunlight, high salinity, a warm water temperature -- and the result is a bloom much bigger than usual.
"There's not a whole lot human beings can do about it," said Boler.
Blooms of this size have become uncommon since 1980 as the water in Hillsborough Bay became cleaner.
But small blooms can almost always be found somewhere in the bay, said Tom Cardinale, assistant director of the commission's water division.
"Mother Nature can sometimes throw one of these things at you even without pollution," he said.