Technology in the tides
Last year a toxin in the ocean ravaged south Florida’s coastlines, killed thousands of marine organisms and left some people who came into contact with the toxin sick and wheezing.
By Emily Loewinger
Last year a toxin in the ocean ravaged south Florida’s coastlines, killed thousands of marine organisms and left some people who came into contact with the toxin sick and wheezing.
Nobody saw the red tide coming, and once it bloomed there was no containing it.
Red tide is a harmful algal bloom, or “HAB.” These phytoplankton blooms often occur from an increase in phosphorous and nitrogen in the water, which come from pollution and runoff. Chemicals like pesticides and gasoline make their way into rivers and oceans through storm drains. These chemicals, along with sunlight, help the phytoplankton thrive. When there is a large influx of nutrients, the algae is able to reproduce rapidly, which then creates a bloom.
“You can kill a red tide,” Florida Gulf Coast University marine science professor Michael Parsons said, “but the problem is, when we finally assess that a red tide is here, it’s too big to use any methods of prevention.”
Until recently there was no way of knowing whether an HAB was coming, but with new technology produced by Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, scientists can spot a phytoplankton bloom from miles away, literally.
The Programmable Hyperspectral Seawater Scanner—or PHySS—is a submersible machine used to detect phytoplankton.
Mote instrumentation specialist Jim Hillier and a team of three other technology scientists worked together for about two years to create the PHySS, which is a more advanced version of the previous technology—the optical phytoplankton discriminator—or OPD.
“The OPD was successful [in detecting red tide], but the PHySS has so much more capability,” Hillier said.
While the OPD was designed solely to detect red tide, the PHySS can detect about 20 species of phytoplankton, including red tide, in much higher resolution.
Two PHySS submersibles were deployed last year in Sanibel and in Mote’s New Pass dock.
“It samples every two hours and sends the data to us by internet, so it’s real time,” Hillier said. “It’s very important these days to know what’s going on right at this moment.”
The efficiency of the PHySS in comparison to the OPD is still being determined, but so far the PHySS has been able to effectively detect different types of phytoplankton in the ocean.
One setback of the PHySS is that it requires monthly maintenance to keep it running smoothly and accurately. The device must be extracted from the water each month, generally for minor repairs.
An even bigger setback that Mote experiences is not having enough funding for continuous work on big technology projects like the PHySS.
“In the non-profit research world you have to move pretty fast,” Hillier said. “By the time you design something and get it working, it’s obsolete.”
The initial cost of a PHySS is around $30,000 per instrument, which, according to Hillier, isn’t that expensive for underwater technology.
Mote gets its funding from donations and through federal, state and local grants.
“It all hinges on funding,” Hillier said.
Mote scientists hope to modify the PHySS to detect additional types of marine algae and potentially non-living substances that can influence algae blooms. Their goal is to be able to detect HABs early on and prevent devastating outbreaks like last year’s red tide episode.
