RED TIDE IS THE CATCH-ALLTERM FOR WHEN THE GROWTH OF

ALGAE IN A PARTICULAR BODY OF WATER INCREASES

EXPONENTIALLY, DISCOLORING THE WATER'S SURFACE.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHILE NOT ALL ALGAE BLOOMS ARE HARMFUL, THE

RED TIDE
DINOFLAGELLATES THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR RED TIDES
RELEASE DANGEROUS TOXINS AND CAUSE OXYGEN
DEPLETION IN THE OCEAN. BOTH OF THESE EFFECTS CAN
HARM MARINE WILDLIFE AND EVEN HUMANS; THEREFORE,
RED TIDES ARE CALLED HARMFUL ALGAE BLOOMS, OR HABS.

1948
Although red tide was first documented along

the Florida coast in the 1800s, research into the

phenomenon accelerated in the 1940s. Charles

Davis connected the mass death of fish with

water discoloration as well as the dinoflagellate

plankton associated with these conditions,

Gymnodinium (Davis, 1948).

1953
Slobodkin's research finds that HABs are not

a common occurrence and require some

kind of chemical event to occur to create

conditions favorable for a red tide algal

bloom. He posits that red tides are not a

spontaneous event (Slobodkin, 1953).

1955
Red tide algal blooms are connected to an

overall increase in nutrient levels of nitrogen

and phosphorous compounds in affected

waters (Odum et al., 1955).

1965-1975
Multiple studies conducted in the 1960s and

1970s show that red tide is a growing

environmental concern, especially along Florida's

1982 coastline. One such HAB in Florida in 1971 lasted

for 3 and a half months (McFarren et al., 1965;

The biological mechanism of the toxin
Steidinger & Ingle, 1972; Murphy et al., 1975).
produced by red tide dinoflagellates is

identified. The respiratory irritation is

caused by smooth muscle contraction in

the trachea (Asai et al., 1982).

1986
The method by which red tide toxins

become airborne is identified. After toxins

are secreted by HABs, some of them are

trapped in bubbles at the crests of waves.

1991 These bubbles are then popped when

wind speeds are high enough and thus

The biochemical pathway by which the neurotoxin
toxin particles are dispersed in the air
produced by dinoflagellate algae affects the
(Pierce, 1986).
brain is established by testing on rat brains. The

toxin, called brevetoxin, binds to the sodium

2007
channel receptors in neurons and increases
The NIH publishes a study examining the effects
uptake of sodium ions (Trainer et al., 1991).
of dinoflagellate brevetoxins on individuals who

suffer from asthma, raising awareness of the

dangerous effect that HABs have on human

2008 health (Fleming et al., 2007).

A possible method of reducing red tide toxicity is

proposed. Introducing a competitor species of

phytoplankton, a diatom, was shown to lower

the concentration of brevetoxins present in the

water (Myers et al., 2008).

2014
While it has long been known that brevetoxin

exposure can kill marine wildlife, a study

conducted on Florida manatees that were

2021 exposed to brevetoxin in concentrations not

high enough to kill them show concerning

Studies conducted in the Yellow Sea off the
longterm effects. Brevetoxins damage the
coast of China shows that red tide is a global
manatee's immune system and permanently
issue that won't abate unless action is taken to
impair its functioning (Walsh et al., 2014).
stop nutrient pollution (Li et al., 2021).