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CNN Live At Daybreak

Black Water Mystery off Florida's Coast

Aired April 02, 2002 - 05:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Last week we told you a little bit about that black water. The possible algae, whatever it is, right down here across parts of Florida, right down there about the Florida Bay. Well scientists were out there looking at it. They did some investigation and our CNN's Mark Potter has some results.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first alert something may be wrong in the Gulf of Mexico came from commercial fishermen. Tim Daniels has fished near Florida all his life, and in late January, flew his plane to try to spot King fish schools. Instead, he found that hundreds of miles of Gulf Coast water has turned black and all the fish were gone.

TIM DANIELS, COMMERCIAL FISHERMAN: I flew for two or three hours looking at black water. All our traditional fishing grounds was black water. I don't know what it is, but black water has took us over out there and there's not a fish anywhere.

POTTER: Satellite images confirmed what Daniels had seen. The dark water first appeared offshore late last year, and by February, had blossomed into an area bigger than Lake Okeechobee as it drifted southward along the west Florida coast.

Fishermen returning with their catches said the water looked like sewage.

GARY BURRIS, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: The only term they could use and two men in one day said the ocean is sick. The ocean's sick.

POTTER: Scientists from around the state then began their investigation, testing the water, trying to determine the cause and the impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go ahead and hit that one next,...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Next, right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and then we'll go off into that other water.

POTTER: Near Key West, the dark water can still be seen, although now it is greenish brown, not black. Based on preliminary data, scientists suspect it is an algae bloom, a natural and common event, although this one is much bigger than any other in the last hundred years.

ERICH MUELLER, MOTE MARINE LABORATORY: What triggered it is a complex series of events, water temperature, nutrient availability, light availability and that's where (ph) we really don't understand much about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is truly a detective story. I mean we have -- we have had events occur, we're trying to collect information that we can collect today and project back into the past to see what has caused this event.

POTTER: Scientists say although the algae may chase fish away, it does not kill them and doesn't appear dangerous to humans.

BRIAN KELLER, FLORIDA KEYS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY: In some ways it's a little bit like a hurricane, it's a large natural event that we watch, we monitor, we try to understand, we try to learn from, but we can't prevent.

POTTER: But the size and duration of the bloom have led some to question whether freshwater runoff, fertilizers and other pollution may be contributing to the explosion of algae.

(on camera): As there is still uncertainty about the exact cause of this event, there is also disagreement over the effects.

(voice-over): Fishermen and environmentalists fear this is a major wakeup call and have reported die-offs of sponges and other sea bottom life in areas touched by the dark water bloom. Scientists say there is no reason for panic but will continue their testing and warn that because of the complexities involved, they may never fully solve the mystery of black water.

Mark Potter, CNN, in the Florida Keys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS: And for all you seafood lovers, that is a major fishery for Florida lobster tail as well. So when the Florida lobster season comes around, we're going to know more about what happened to the bottom of the ocean as well. Most of that water only between 20 and 40 feet deep.

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