Environment

Florida allocates money to Mote Marine Lab to fight harmful algal blooms

WUSF | By Aileyahu Shanes

Published May 29, 2024 at 1:47 PM EDT

Blue-green algae, such as that seen here, can be harmful to both animals and humans.

Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium has more funds to fight blue-green algal blooms.

The Sarasota-based facility is receiving $3.2 million from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop technologies to combat harmful blooms.

The money will be used for three projects.

The first one will take place in Lake Jesup in Seminole County, studying a device called Lake Guard Dew, which will float on lakes and slowly release a product to eliminate blue-green algae.

Lake Jesup will be the site for the Lake Guard Dew efficacy project.

A second study will look at a device put in Lake Sarasota that physically removes the algae from waterways.

And the third study will look at the effectiveness of Xtreme, a non-toxic product that looks to reduce blue-green algae and the toxins from it.

Kevin Claridge, vice president of sponsored research and coastal policy programs at Mote, said the DEP funding is very impactful.

"It's exceptional," Claridge said. “Without this type of funding to be able to do this type of testing, it's complicated the amount of data to collect to go out and to conduct the field operations."

Blue-green algae can be harmful to animals and humans when it grows out of control.

“With the right conditions, the right water chemistry, temperatures, lack of flow nutrients, you can have a quick growth of population of that which can cause environmental impacts to animals, such as producing oxygen in the water,” Claridge said. “But (what it can) also have is producing a toxin of concern for humans that interact with that water, whether they're out fishing or recreating, swimming, those types of things.”

Blue-green algae are microscopic and found mostly in fresh, brackish — a combination of salt and freshwater — and marine waters.

Claridge said warmer waters from climate change could be making algae spread a lot faster.

“As the water gets warmer, there's a higher chance of many of the algae growing in population,” he said, “and causing a bloom or an impact.”

New technology, like the rendering seen here, is what Mote will invest in with grant money from the DEP.