By Jim Waymer/FLORIDA TODAY
Brown tide’s return reinforces fears the algae that first bloomed here last year might become a permanent and deadly fixture in an already ailing Indian River Lagoon.
This time, the algae — Aureoumbra lagunensis — bloomed earlier and in the same stretches of northern lagoon and southern Mosquito Lagoon.
The algae is so small that it would take 200 of its cells to stretch across the period at the end of this sentence.
But biologists warn the damage this tiny algae could inflict on the lagoon is huge. Brown-tide blooms block sunlight vital to the seagrass that supports much of the lagoon’s marine life. It also kills shellfish such as oysters and scallops.
To read more:
Indian River Guardian 