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INVASION OF THE GREEN TIDES
On Thursday, June 19, HARBOR BRANCH marine ecologist Dr. Brian Lapointe will give a public talk to discuss his
decades of work studying the harmful spread of seaweed on reefs in Palm Beach County and around the world. He
will also explain the threat posed to the Indian River Lagoon by Caulerpa brachypus, a non-native species first
spotted on reefs that has now spread into the lagoon through local inlets, so far only to a limited degree.
When seaweed blooms, or grows explosively, it can cover over and kill healthy reefs and pile up under coral ledges
forcing out the fish and other animals that would normally live there. This year, research revealed that seaweed
had covered approximately 85% of one Palm Beach County reef in a matter of weeks.
Dr. Lapointe will use the results of his past and ongoing research to make the case that such devastating bloom events,
also known as "green tides", are fueled by nutrients from sewage pollution. His case studies will cover research from
throughout South Florida as well as the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Every day in South Florida about one billion gallons of nutrient-rich sewage that has undergone only limited treatment
is pumped offshore or into underground aquifers that can allow seepage into the ocean. In areas such as the Florida Keys,
sewage seepage from septic tanks is also a major source of ocean pollution.
Dr. Lapointe's talk will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 19th, at the main auditorium of the Johnson Education Center
at HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, 5600 U.S. 1 North, Fort Pierce, FL. The talk is free to the public. For
additional information please call the HARBOR BRANCH Associates Office at 772-465-2400 ext. 559.
HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, Inc., is one of the world's leading nonprofit oceanographic research
organizations dedicated to exploration of the earth's oceans, estuaries and coastal regions for the benefit
of humankind.
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