Red Tide Has Likely Killed a Million Fish in Galveston

August 17, 2012 | 10:37 AM
By Terrence Henry

Photo by Tony Reisinger/Courtesy of Parks & Wildlife

Dead redfish along the shores of the Brownsville Ship Channel during a red tide in September 2011.

A red tide in the Gulf has killed nearly a million fish on the beaches of Galveston, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The fish — most of them Gulf menhaden, but some species of catfish as well — are washing up on the Galveston and Surfside beaches, as well as the Bolivar Peninsula.

The department says that they haven’t seen any red tide on aerial flights over the upper or lower coasts, but that “does not mean that the red tide is gone, but rather that cell counts are not high enough to discolor the water.”

Samples taken at other Texas beaches, like Mission Bay and Padre Island, haven’t turned up any red tide, either.

Earlier: Why Dead Fish Are Washing Up on the Beaches of Galveston

Comments

  • noscience=nonsense

    And the question of the day is, How long will it take to hear that this is the result of global warming, the gulf oil spill, or George Bush’s presidency?

  • http://profiles.google.com/ivor.oconnor Ivor O’Connor

    It’s the trifecta of Bush, oil spills, and global warming. ;)

  • amf

    It might be nice for the writer to explain what red tide is. We all don’t live on the ocean.

    • Tom

      You’re sitting right in front of the internet. Allow me to direct you to google.com . It works wonders.

      • Lurker111

        Red Tide is a communist conspiracy.

      • Doolz

        If I could vote this comment up a million times I would!!!

  • ablinkn

    The red tide is an algae bloom that is fed by agricultural runoff. Not only fertilizer but animal waste feeds the algae. They use so much oxygen as they grow that they deplete the ocean around them of oxygen.

    • memyselfandi

      Well, a great variety of algal blooms, not just red tide, can deplete water of oxygen. But that is not the mechanism by which red tide kills fish. Red tide is a dinoglagellate. This group of algae includes many that release toxins into the water. Among those is the red tide organism, _Gymnodinium brevis_. Others concentrate in clams and render them toxic. The toxin that _Gymnodinium_ releases is toxic not just to fish, but to many other organisms including people. When the red tide bloom is very rich, even the air at the beach can be irritating and even bring on serious breathing problems for sensitive people.

      • Deraillor

        Dinoflagellate. Otherwise, thanks for the info!

  • Kate

    Welcome to deregulation.

  • Margarita

    More importantly, why didn’t this article mention the extreme importance of the menhaden to the ocean’s ecosystem? The menhaden are being overfished by Omega Protein, and what’s left is having to deal with deadly algal blooms because there aren’t enough (menhaden) left to prevent them. We (humans) cannot afford to lose the menhaden.

  • John

    What a lame article! This was so non informative I am ashamed I wasted my time reading it.
    Did the author only have a three minute deadline or what?

  • John

    Definitely GWB fault!
    No doubt about it!

  • JW

    Hmm… Has to be an unprovable red tide outbreak, not the obvious millions of barrels of oil spilled in the gulf. Even NPR can be bought by the BP.

  • Guy from Nashville

    Did anyone check to see if these fish were here legally?

  • Ron

    Good on Texas.

  • julianpenrod

    Assuming it is a “red tide”, the question arises, why even mention it as something special? If it’s a natural occurrence, a million dead fish on the shores would be an all but yearly event and known as predictable even in the Northeast. This sounds like a desperate attempt to explain away something that seems unnatural because it is.

    But notice the “science” attitude about the “red tide”. The water not being red doesn’t mean there is no “red tide” it’s because “cell counts aren’t high enough to discolor the water”. The cells are plentiful enough to kill millions of fish, but it’s not enough to discolor the water! Characteristic of “science” today. There’s no evidence the phenomenon we’re claiming exist, but you’re ordered to believe it, anyway! If “scientists” say it’s so, it’s so, even if there’s no evidence it’s true!

  • The Moon

    I am very sorry both for the fish and what lives in the ocean as well as the American people because people are kept in the dark. And the fish are left alone to cope with the Gulf Oil Spill only to be washed up on the beach to send a message to the officials that ” hey you guys the water is killing us. Do something to save us ! “

  • Gregory

    It is Obama. He’s asked climate scientists to create red tide as a way to destroy the earth. Obama is secretly building a spaceship to escape to an earth-like planet in our solar system that no one knows about. He has installed a hybrid socialist-free enterprise economy with single payer health care on the new world. Guns are forbidden. Pollution and Wall Street will be regulated. Energy will be provided by only renewal sources and the water and air will always be clean and pure. We conservatives know all of these things are amoral so we do not accept them in the name of GOD, AMEN. Obama has not told anyone but other socialists the planet exists and only they know where it is.

  • Mark Novak

    Texas is a pooring regulated state that is in denial even as the cosequences wash assor onn our beaches.

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