 SCIENTIST TO TEST ALGAE OFFSHORE FOR WASTE LINK Palm Beach Post -- Thursday, May 10, 2001 By: Willie Howard, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer RIVIERA BEACH -- Researcher Brian LaPointe and his crew from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution will start diving the reefs off Palm Beach County today to sample algae blooms on the ocean floor. During the study, expected to last well into the summer, LaPointe plans to gather samples of Codium and Caulerpa and test them for the presence of a nitrogen isotope that could link them to human waste. The work could give LaPointe more data to support his hunch that treated sewage, sent deep underground by waste-treatment plants, is seeping out along the reef tract. LaPointe also plans to map the coverage of the two types of algae so their abundance can be monitored. Both types of algae cover hard bottom, crowding out algae eaten by fish and reducing space available for corals to settle and grow. As invasive algae covers reefs, the entire food chain can be affected, LaPointe said. Light-green Caulerpa, formerly found off Singer Island and Juno Beach, has recently been found south of Palm Beach Inlet. Unlike Codium, which is dark green and wanes in the cold months, Caulerpa grows all year. Codium grew thick on the reefs off Jupiter and Hobe Sound last summer. Clumps of Codium washed up on the beach at the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge. LaPointe also is working on studies of algae crowding out seagrasses in the Indian River Lagoon. Copyright (c) 2001, The Palm Beach Post |