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Using Ozone to Remove Red Tide from Seawater

A single-cell of the algae species Karenia brevis, which causes Florida red tide.
MOTE MARINE LABORATORY
A single-cell of the algae species Karenia brevis, which causes Florida red tide.

As coastal communities continue facing the repercussions from the nearly year-old red tide bloom lingering off the coast southwest Florida, researchers are searching for ways to reduce its impact, and possibly even physically remove the organism that causes it,Karenia brevis, from the water.

Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota is testing a device it first developed to purify water entering its Aquarium, called an Ozonator. It basically bubbles ozone through seawater inside a special container, destroying and removing organic matter it contains. We're joined by Dr. Richard Pierce, Associate Vice President for Research, and a Senior Scientist and Program Manager at Mote.

Copyright 2018 WGCU

Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.