 TRACK THE REEF KILLERS Palm Beach Post -- Tuesday, May 29, 2001 By: Joe Brogan, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer OPINIONS Page Not that long ago, the waters were clear and the coral reefs along Florida's east coast and in the Keys were healthy and teeming with fish. In little more than a decade, however, inshore reefs have begun dying. Some fish, such as the copper-colored glassy sweeper, have vanished, and other species are disappearing as thick carpets of seaweed cover the coral heads and creep across the ocean floor. One study underway and another that would run on a state grant if Gov. Bush approves seek to pinpoint causes of the runaway algae growth that threatens the state's irreplaceable reefs. This summer, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce will complete a $75,000 study of seaweed samples gathered in coastal waters from Broward County to Jupiter. Scientists will test the Codium and Caulerpa algae for signs of a nitrogen isotope that could link them to human waste. Gov. Bush is expected to keep a separate $1 million grant to Harbor Branch in this year's budget for a study that would extend the testing to deeper waters, more sites and a wider area, from St. Lucie County to the Keys. Harbor Branch scientist Brian LaPointe is seeking more information to support his hunch that treated sewage, pumped deep underground by waste treatment plants, is seeping out along the reefs. Researchers will work with Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials to pinpoint locations of deep injection wells and ocean sewage outfalls and try to correlate them with maps showing where the algae is growing. The state and federal governments have begun to address the problems of too many septic tanks leaching nutrient-filled waters onto the reefs with plans for more sewage treatment plants and an overall plan for treating wastewater throughout the Keys. Urban stormwater runoff, fertilizers and dairy cow manure, Dr. LaPointe believes, also are adding huge quantities of algae-feeding nitrogen to fresh water that flows through Central Florida and the Everglades and is released to Florida Bay. He believes that nitrogen-rich water may be finding its way underground to the reefs. Dr. LaPointe also is studying algae that is crowding out seagrasses in the Indian River Lagoon. Not all scientists agree with Dr. LaPointe's theories. But his long-term data on such sites as the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary document degradation of the reef coinciding with the release of nutrient-laden waters to Florida Bay. Rapid encroachment of the new algaes onto reefs off Palm Beach County, which divers and fishermen first noticed, is crowding out the algae fish eat and covering space in which corals would grow. What started as an aesthetic problem could become an economic problem if the algaes affect sportfishing and diving. Dr. LaPointe's study is an ambitious project that needs to begin quickly, before it is too late to reverse the damage to Florida's reefs. Copyright (c) 2001, The Palm Beach Post |