Bloom and gloom: US expert Donald Anderson labels SA algae horror among worst in the world
A US algal bloom expert has revealed some shocking insights ahead of his arrival in South Australia to investigate the growing marine crisis.
South Australia’s toxic algal bloom is among the worst recorded outbreaks in the world and is showing a disturbing resilience against seasonal weather changes that could allow it to persist for months to come, an international scientist has warned.
United States-based algal bloom expert Donald Anderson will arrive in Adelaide this week to help advise on the growing marine crisis and said a dispersal method regularly used in China and Korea could help break up the mammoth outbreak.
But he cautioned that South Australia’s case was far worse than any harmful algal bloom outbreak ever previously neutralised anywhere in the world, meaning authorities may be forced to pick and choose specific areas to treat.
Dr Anderson, a senior scientist and the director of the US National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution – the research centre that discovered the Titanic, has been studying the phenomenon around the world for more than four decades.
“It’s not a unique situation, but it’s also one of the worst that’s happened globally for a long time,” he said.
South Australian Research and Development Institute Professor Mike Steer on Friday said “the government is aware of Donald Anderson’s research into algal blooms and their management”.
He confirmed Mr Anderson was invited to visit SA next week – funded by the government – to observe the local bloom, and meet with officials and industry representatives.
Speaking to The Advertiser from Massachusetts before boarding his flight to Adelaide, Dr Anderson said one of the bloom control strategies he would put forward to Australian authorities was a process known as algal flocculation.
The method, successfully used in China and Korea for decades, involves dispersing clay in the affected areas.
Harmful algal bloom particles cling to the clay, causing them to become heavier and sink, thereby clearing the outbreak.
“But the problem now may be that this bloom is so big that logistically, it may not be possible to attack it at this stage, other than maybe targeting some very valuable and specific sites where it’s a smaller scale and where one might be able to do something,” he said.
In 2003, Korea used 220,000 tonnes of clay to stifle harmful algal bloom outbreaks.
“That’s a lot (of clay) but they are protecting a huge resource,” he said.
South Australia’s bloom event that began in March now covers an enormous 4500 square kilometre patch of ocean and has caused a catastrophic marine die off.
China has used the clay solution about once a year on average over the past 20 years.
“They have done it over an area as large as 100 square kilometres … so that’s big and it’s a significant deal, but you can sort of see the message I’m going to be delivering down there in Australia,” he said.
“That the bloom right now is covering hundreds of square miles. So when you say ‘can something be done’, … you could do something in some specific areas, but doing something over the entire bloom would be way beyond the scale of what anyone’s done globally right now, but protecting specific resources is possible.”
SCALE OF SA’S BLOOM
Dr Anderson said Australia’s case was reminiscent of a 2020 outbreak in Russia of the same Karenina bloom species. It caused so much damage that an investigation was launched to determine whether it was caused by a nearby military facility.
“In terms of the scale of the bloom, it’s a bad one,” he said of South Australia’s case.
“It is unusual on a global scale. It’s not the worst ever, sure, but it’s close.”
In 2018, a ‘red tide’ toxic algal bloom in Florida lasted for more than a year, causing billions of dollars in damage. It was caused by the species karenia brevis, the more toxic relative to the karenia mikimotoi wreaking havoc in Australia.
Dr Anderson said it was difficult to predict how long South Australia’s bloom would last without intervention, but said it was noteworthy it had survived the transition in seasons from hot to cold.
“That says to me that it’s an adaptable type of organism, and it may be able to make it through the winter like the one did in Florida in 2018, once you get enough cells in the water, they can persist,” he said.
The scientist said he had spoken to his Australian counterparts about the success of early monitoring systems used in the United States, including live testing instruments on boats that could identify outbreaks early on.
Florida-based scientist Charles Jacoby who is the strategic program director of the Florida Flood Hub for Applied Research and Innovation said red tides had been recorded off the coast since the 1800s.
Dr Jacoby said while it was impossible to prevent bloom events, they were often fuelled or prolonged by human activity that put more nitrogen and phosphorous into the environment – for example fertilisers and sewerage.
He is a member of Florida’s Harmful Algal Bloom add Red Tide Taskforce that researches, monitors and controls the phenomenon in that state and said it was important for authorities to clearly communicate the exact locations of the bloom events to support local fishing and tourism industries.
“Definitely tourism tends to take a hit when the blooms are on, and part of the challenge is communicating the fact that not every Florida beach simultaneously is suffering from an algal bloom,” he said.
Dr Jacoby said their work had been assisted by the help of ordinary citizens who regularly monitored and reported blooms to help identify outbreaks early and suggested a similar initiative in Australia.
He said Florida’s experience had shown varying recovery rates for the marine life killed in blooms, saying while some species bounced back quickly, late maturing fish struggled to repopulate.
US FISHER’S WARNING
In Florida’s oldest fishing village of Cortez, Karen Bell runs AP Bell Fish Co wholesale seafood dealer. Her family has been fishing the waters in the area since 1895.
Ms Bell said in the 1940s after the end of World War II, a red tide outbreak was so severe her father went shrimping in Mexico to wait for it to clear – it took two years.
She said the industry had been devastated by the 2018 outbreak.
Crab boats that would ordinarily fill their catch metres from the shore had to travel 100 miles offshore to fish.
“That was a really severe year, it was about literally 12 months of no inshore fish production,” she said.
“I’d say at least a third of our sales were, you know, diminished because of the impacts of that.”
Ms Bell said some fishermen instead found work hauling dead marine life away from waterfront suburbs to clear the stench of rotting fish.
“Other than that, you just kind of have to literally ride it out and wait for it to balance again and the ecosystem to come back,” she said of living with algal bloom outbreaks in Florida.
“In 2018 it was about a year and then the one my dad had in the 40s was about two years.”
She said in both instances, an abundance of marine life had returned in the wake of the blooms.
“That’s something my dad pointed out to me, you think there’d be nothing left but as the next as the seasons would roll on, he thought it seemed like there were more fish than ever before,” she said.
“I’m always big on telling the public to support their commercial fishermen, because obviously they deal with things like red tide and Mother Nature and they work really hard.”
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Originally published as Bloom and gloom: US expert Donald Anderson labels SA algae horror among worst in the world
