A Florida Tech scientist has received a grant to study the tissue from dead bottlenose dolphins and the fish they eat throughout the Indian River to check for an unusual algae-related toxin found during one of the massive fish kills in March 2016.
The three-year study funded by a $275,000 grant by the Florida Protect Wild Dolphins Specialty License Plate Fund, has Florida Tech marine biologist Spencer Fire looking at the impact of what is normally a freshwater organism – a green-colored cyanobacteria called Microcystis – and the toxin it produces to see how it is affecting dolphins and their prey.
A fish kill in Brevard in March 2016 was caused by Texas Brown Tide, named after the location the brown algae was first discovered. The Microcystis outbreak was in the southern lagoon, where it created a green sludge around the St. Lucie River outflow at the same time as the fish kill, Fire said.
For the study, Fire and researchers at FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute will come up with detection methods for the Microcystis organism, find out what water quality it thrives in and – most important for Brevard – map the geographic distribution of the organism and animals contaminated by it.
“This species is typically a fresh water species and usually can’t thrive in an estuary because it’s brackish saline water,” Fire said. “The first question we have is, ‘Are we going to start seeing this more often?’ If so, what could the possible consequences be?
“Now that we know this is a potential hazard, can we detect it? When and where and how far has it spread, and can we track it through the food web, specifically key species of fish, particularly ones used by dolphins for food?”
The fish kills make the study especially timely as dolphins may serve as “canaries in the coal mine” of the Indian River Lagoon.
“The idea is that, if these dolphins are sort of an indicator of marine health, they could give us an early warning of possible human health impacts,” Fire said. “It’s as important as ever to study the IRL. Just last year, there were two big, attention-getting dramatic events: a big fish kill in March and then this huge, nasty green sludgy bloom in August and September. Just the fact that we had those in the same year is indicative that we have issues,’’ he said.
But much more than just documenting a scientific anomaly, the data resulting from the study and others like it could inform important policy decisions in the future, Fire said.
“From a management prospective, this is a new toxin that we don’t know the impacts of. We really can’t with confidence say our water or our fish are clean if this hasn’t been studied. You really have no basis to make management decisions.”
Fires said he is fortunate to be at Florida Tech for its proximity to his area of academic study.
“This is the perfect place to work: we have two populations of marine mammals that live in our backyard (manatee, dolphins) and we have I don’t know how many species of potentially toxic algae.
“There’s lots of stuff for me to do here,” he said.
Fire said he is interested to see what can be learned about toxins from algae blooms but stressed that the study will likely result in more questions than answers. “It’s still a first pass. This really isn’t an issue we’ve had to deal with before. This is a first look at the possible impacts. There is no other data or publications with this toxin and marine mammals,’’ he said.
