The Red Tide
Kyle X. Singleton
10/11/2015
GEOS101
Jennifer Lundberg
From being a small child in Chicago, to now being an adult, I have traveled to quite a few different places and now even live on a different coast. During these travels, I’ve seen a number of different waters in the places I’ve lived and even more with me being in the Navy. I honestly thought that Lake Michigan was pretty clean growing up with the exception of the seaweed and litter floating around. While at summer camp one year, I traveled to Green Lake WI, and was so amazed that the water was actually green. On a side note, I remember that WI water always smelled like eggs. At that age, I also couldn’t tell you the difference between a lake and ocean. When …show more content…
I always just figured it was dirty water and clean water. I figured swamp water was full of mud so it looked green and brown, and Bahamas water was far away from cities so it remained clean and clear. I thought that I had never seen a red tide until actually doing some research and seeing that the green lake in Wisconsin is considered a red tide as well. Red tides aren’t always red, they range from brown, burgundy, and pink to red, green, and yellow. I’m not sure why the term red tide stuck, but I guess it’s because it’s the most common of all the other colors …show more content…
A red tide can last anywhere from days to months. According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, “the length of time that a plankton bloom continues depends on many things, such as available nutrients and sunlight, water temperature, changes in wind or surf conditions, competition with other species, and grazing by zooplankton and small fish”. One of the longest red tides occurred in 1994 and lasted nearly two years near Key West, FL, killing about 238 manatees. As mentioned earlier, red tides have been happening for thousands of years, the concern now is that the frequency of these red tides increasing greatly. In some areas of the world, red tides are a natural occurrence due to the sudden increase nutrients. It is a manmade problem because the excessive use of fertilizer and toxic outbreaks are now occurring frequently in places that they hadn’t
Kyle X. Singleton
10/11/2015
GEOS101
Jennifer Lundberg
From being a small child in Chicago, to now being an adult, I have traveled to quite a few different places and now even live on a different coast. During these travels, I’ve seen a number of different waters in the places I’ve lived and even more with me being in the Navy. I honestly thought that Lake Michigan was pretty clean growing up with the exception of the seaweed and litter floating around. While at summer camp one year, I traveled to Green Lake WI, and was so amazed that the water was actually green. On a side note, I remember that WI water always smelled like eggs. At that age, I also couldn’t tell you the difference between a lake and ocean. When …show more content…
I always just figured it was dirty water and clean water. I figured swamp water was full of mud so it looked green and brown, and Bahamas water was far away from cities so it remained clean and clear. I thought that I had never seen a red tide until actually doing some research and seeing that the green lake in Wisconsin is considered a red tide as well. Red tides aren’t always red, they range from brown, burgundy, and pink to red, green, and yellow. I’m not sure why the term red tide stuck, but I guess it’s because it’s the most common of all the other colors …show more content…
A red tide can last anywhere from days to months. According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, “the length of time that a plankton bloom continues depends on many things, such as available nutrients and sunlight, water temperature, changes in wind or surf conditions, competition with other species, and grazing by zooplankton and small fish”. One of the longest red tides occurred in 1994 and lasted nearly two years near Key West, FL, killing about 238 manatees. As mentioned earlier, red tides have been happening for thousands of years, the concern now is that the frequency of these red tides increasing greatly. In some areas of the world, red tides are a natural occurrence due to the sudden increase nutrients. It is a manmade problem because the excessive use of fertilizer and toxic outbreaks are now occurring frequently in places that they hadn’t