Red Tide?

(Photos: Wikipedia: LaJolla, CA Red Tide,
& Western Baltic Sea Dead Zone)

I remember the Tampa TV guy looking sternly into the camera, saying something about how Red Tide was now expected off of Clearwater by midweek. They showed footage from beach points to the south - and all the dead fish, and countless complaints from motel operators about empty rooms. Apparently, a lot of people complained about respiratory ailments. Naturally, being young, arrogant, and indestructible, we almost all cried out in unison: "We ain't 'fraid a no Red Tide." (Even before "Ghost Busters," we were all talking like that. Yeah.)

Naturally, we hadn't even gotten within 1/4 mile of Red Tide. One snoot full of the aerosol toxins - not necessarily the dead fish smell, either - and you got the "Red Tide Religion" right quick, as the Florida crackers used to say. It burns the throat, the sinuses, the lungs, and causes the eyes to get all puffy.

It's not new - it's just worse than ever. The logs of the Spanish mention fish kills in Tampa Bay, and New World sources mention it starting in 1840. Now, some say you can swim in the stuff. If you wanna swim in it, well, go ahead. For those who actually advocate this practice, I'd like to suggest some fine things these folks could eat. (Well, that, too). But I was thinking more along the lines of scallops, clams and oysters - dipped in a pungent, slightly rust colored soup. Swim in it? Nope, not me. (Cracker speak: "Hail, no.")

Red tide and algal blooms are influenced by nutrient loading from humans, yielding things like nitrates and phosphates. If you raise fish in a pond, certain algae, when eaten by the fish, will yield an unpleasant taste. Algae tend to love nitrates - like fertilizers - and they give off some rancid smells.

Wherever algae grow, some naturally dies. This same dead organic stuff becomes a food source for bacteria. This same bacteria increases and uses up the available oxygen in the water, (DO or dissolved oxygen). When the DO declines, many fish cannot live. Got pond scum or algae? Oxygenate.


Ever hear of Dead Zones? (I'm not talking Stephen King, or even cell phones, but a real life phenomenon). Caused mainly by fertilizer runoff, the most notorious is in the good ole' Gulf of Mexico - about 20,000 square kilometers, compliments of all the runoff from the Mississippi River. Don't bother fishing in the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone, by the way. No fish. Dead zones, of low dissolved oxygen, are now worldwide.

Dead Zones, like algal blooms, ARE reversible. As a case in point, after the old Soviet Union collapsed, the Black Sea dead zone (formerly the biggest in the world) almost disappeared. Why? Fertilizer became very expensive, and dropped in usage from 1991 to 2001. Fishing has come back! (So has the fertilizer. Oh, well.)

Florida

Later this week I travel back to Florida. Oh, Florida! So many memories: the incredible sprawl of the metro areas along most of the Gulf Coast; the beauty of the relatively untrammeled Panhandle and the white sands that await in places along the coast like Perdido Key, west of Pensacola. Add a final jog along that same beach roadway, into the quaint coastal side of Gulf Shores, and voila - you in Alabama now, son.

Let's say you spurn Interstate 75 altogether, and opt, instead, for a jaunt along the former main thoroughfares from way down in South Venice all the way up to Crystal River. Going north, that would take in, first, metro Sarasota and Bradenton, then over the Sunshine Skyway, (I wouldn't take you through Ruskin, Gibsonton and Tampa just for old-times). Get onto U.S. 19 and go through Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, past Weeki Wachee and continue up through Homosassa. What does that get you? One hundred and fifty odd miles of mostly 8-plus lanes of traffic. Actually, the Florida as I remember doesn't really exist anymore, at least until you get ever further north - another 11 miles past the ever more distant Yankeetown-Inglis area. For is really just after that that U.S. 19 hooks suddenly to the northwest - and you fold the space-time continuum to observe the quirky desolation of earlier times as it comes crashing into view. Whee.

Go about 20 miles to Otter Creek, take a left on Florida 24, go another 20 and visit the place that many - Floridians and no - consider more than a lot like Key West, circa 1970. That would be Cedar Key, right on the Gulf of Mexico. This reminds me of another story...

Flow-Through Fish Farming/Aquaculture

Flow-Through: These systems (this one, as available from www.tamcofish.com)uses a diverted flowing cold water source. You construct a separate raceway for the fish. The oxygen levels should be sufficient. Writer Steve Van Gorder has said that with but a little (a few gallons) spring water you can grow trout all year. Make certain to talk to authorities at Fish and Wildlife and/or Soil Conservation before you mess with their streams (ahem)...I plan to go into detail on all of these examples...

Cage System

In a cage system, in a stream, lake, or pond, the frame is most often constructed of PVC, while the netting itself is rigid. The whole cage structure itself is anchored. The idea is to add fingerlings, feed, add oxygenation if needed, and harvest.

Grow Your Own Fish!

There are 4 basic types of aquaculture (simple to complex):
Home Systems
Cage Systems
Flow-Through
Greenhouse Aquaponics

This photo, to the left, is like one above-ground pool—similar to a Home system.

When the only available water is from a hose, a vinyl-lined above ground pool can be located in a basement, garage, or a yard. For a couple hundred dollars up to a couple thousand, (do fish REALLY need those ladders?) a 3-foot high, 12 foot-diameter pool will hold about 2000 gallons of water. When using unfiltered water, writer Steve Van Gorder says to expect only ~ 13 lbs of fish per year. BUT!! If you remove waste, ammonia, AND you oxygenate, that figure jumps to more than 100 pounds of fish. Almost a 10-fold increase! (And, it's not very expensive, stay tuned...)

Something Fishy Going on 'Round Here

The first time I told anybody, it went sort of like this: “Hey! We just filed for a patent for fish farming.”

“Oh yeah…what’s it gonna do?”

“It super-oxygenates water.”

“Oh yeah? You think I can raise fish in my basement?”

I was speechless. I wrote the experience off to my eclectic choice of friends. I figured who (in their right mind) would really want to raise fish in the basement of an inner-city house? Probably somebody who might advocate the wearing of tin foil hats. (http://www.virtualberks.com/tinfoilhat/)

I gave a speech and a PowerPoint presentation to a group a couple of weeks later. Guy comes up to me afterwards, saying: “Can I raise homegrown fish in my backyard?” I got two more such questions that night. Again, silence reigned supreme. I sought the sage advice of a Fellow Fish, and it was decided we had better look into the whole topic. We don’t plan to get involved with “grow-your-own” fish farms, but it seemed like there was suddenly an awful lot of interest out there. I found out a bunch of stuff. So, I thought I’d blog it. So, standby for what I found out…