Monitoring algae blooms

– July 19, 2023 –

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Researcher looks for harmful algae blooms

If reports about harmful algae blooms in Florida have you worried about swimming on the Georgia coast, UGA Skidaway Institute graduate student Mallory Mintz has some good news and some bad news. Georgia’s high tidal range pretty thoroughly flushes out our coastal waters twice a day, reducing the opportunity for algae to reproduce quickly. But that doesn’t mean these blooms can’t happen here. They can and they have. They stay under the radar in part because monitoring in Georgia isn’t as robust as in other states.

Piggybacking on the work of citizen scientists, Mintz is studying what makes conditions ripe for algae blooms in the Skidaway River, as The Current’s Mary Landers reports.

Mintz spoke as part of the Saltwater Science Speaker Series sponsored by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant. Get more information and register online here for the July 27 talk, Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration.

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BEACH ADVISORIES: As of this writing, there are no temporary beach advisories in Georgia for high bacteria levels. Permanent advisories remain in effect for St. Andrews Beach and Clam Creek Beach on Jekyll.

Before you head to the beach, check the link to see current notices.

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Sea turtle hatch underway

Georgia’s sea turtles are hatching. The first newbie sea turtles of the season crawled out of their nest on St. Catherines on Saturday, reported Mark Dodd, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources biologist who heads up a small army of professionals and volunteers who monitor and protect sea turtle nests. That first nest was laid 70 days earlier. A second 70-day-old nest erupted with hatchlings Sunday on Cumberland. Jekyll reported its first hatch Monday.

The DNR reports “sea turtle nesting in Georgia is on pace for 3,100 nests this summer, below last year’s record 4,072 nests but in line with predictions and above the 34-year average of 1,590.” Nesting typically slows in late July as hatching revs up.

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Uses for titanium dioxide decline

As Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals continues to seek a permit to strip mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the uses for its main target mineral, titanium dioxide, may be declining.

About 93 percent of the world’s titanium is refined into titanium dioxide for pigment, most of which is used in paint, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. but it’s also used in food, including M&Ms and Oreos.

However, the European Union banned titanium dioxide as a food additive as of last August because of a possibility that it causes DNA or chromosomal damage. U.S. public health advocacy groups recently asked the U.S. Food And Drug Administration to similarly withdraw its approval, the Guardian reported last month.

White paint is the latest product that could back away from titanium dioxide for its production. The New York Times reports on a super-white paint that reflects sunlight so well it’s touted as a possible tool for combating global warming. Developed by scientists at Purdue University, the ultrawhite paint uses barium sulfate rather than titanium dioxide, which is used in most commercial paints. Both minerals must be mined, but only titanium dioxide is found near the Okefenokee. Barite mining in the United States occurs predominantly in Nevada.

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Also noted

• A road-killed deer in Florida’s Panhandle recently tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the first time this contagious killer of deer has been documented in Florida. The disease has not been detected in Georgia. “It can take as long as two years before an infected white-tailed deer shows zombie-like symptoms of listlessness, droopy head, severe weight loss, repetitive walking and drooling,” Stanley Dunlap reports in the Georgia Recorder.

• This year’s Department of Natural Resources nesting surveys shows bald eagles recovering in coastal Georgia counties where avian influenza hammered them in 2022, the department reports.  The coast host about a third of Georgia’s 200 or so eagle nests. Coastal nest success dropped about 30 percent last year, but rebounded to a normal rate in 2023.

• Climate change or just July? With temperatures expected to reach triple digits by the end of the week in Coastal Georgia, researchers at the nonprofit Climate Central say climate change is having a measureable impact on our already scorching summer. They calculate that climate change is making Wednesday’s expected high of 97 in Savannah at least 5 times more likely.

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