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HABs: The Red Scare
From: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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| A Noctiluca algal bloom off the coast of California. | |
 he rash of media headlines--"Cells From Hell," "Microscopic Killers Surface in Florida Waters," "The Rise in Toxic Tides"--have scared the public into an awareness of the dangers of toxic algae. But in terms of deepening public understanding of so-called red tides, the panicked headlines tend to muddy the waters. |
The Harmful Algae Page(www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/default.html) is an informative, straightforward site from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that explains the phenomena known as red tides. Scientists prefer to call them harmful algal blooms (HABs), because not all harmful algae are red, and those that are don't have to be numerous enough to turn the water red before they are harmful--and none of the HABs have anything to do with tides. |
Organized by topics such as "harmful species," "adverse impacts," "human illness," "maps," "pertinent information" and "news articles," the site makes it easy to get a quick yet thorough grounding in what HABs are and how they can cause sickness and death--and how to avoid being struck. |
The site explains that most algae are not toxic and are in fact necessary for the survival of life on this planet, and that even toxic algae often do not exist in high enough concentrations to affect higher life. The site takes a balanced look at why red tide occurrences seem to have been happening more frequently in the past 20 years. Explanations of the different types of harmful algae, the toxins they produce and the symptoms they cause are especially useful but in many ways more chilling than the scare headlines found in the mass media. |
Supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) / National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant, the site was created by the National Office for Marine Biotoxins and Harmful Algal Blooms at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. |
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