By Jowee A. Carteciano
MediaCore, NRCP

When the cold months wash away, coastal villagers and the fishing industry might be swept again by the dreaded Red Tide scare.  But a few local marine scientists sifted through science and political correctness to spare the public and fisherfolk emotional and economic distress.

First of all, not all phytoplankton species blamed wholesale for the deadly phenomenon are red.  These microscopic algae or aquatic plant group come in different pigments such as brown, green, yellow, and of course red, says Dr. Paciente Cordero, marine biologist and executive director of the National Research Council of the Philippines, a collegial body under the Department of Science and Technology.

"Red Tide", which fractionally turns the sea into red and understood to cause deaths to human and marine lives is an allusion to a biblical story.  The real thing has nothing to do with tidal rhythm, either.

"Only a small number of phytoplankton species out of several thousands produce potent toxins.  The more virulent of these include Alexandrium catenella, Pseudo-nitzcia australis, and a certain variety of Pyrodinium bahamense that is a dinoflagellate species known to breed and reproduce in Philippine marine grounds", NRCP in a study noted.

Phytoplankton is one of the main sources of food and energy in living organisms' "food chain."  During the rainy or cold months, the micromonsters lie dormant on the seafloor.  But warm temperature and accumulation of water nutrients trigger the bloom or reproduction of phytoplanktons especially during the end of summer months, it added.

Such phytoplankton outbreak should be called "HABs" or harmful algae blooms.  This scientifically correct term, NRCP believes, would spare the non-poisonous phytoplanktons the wicked stigma.

In the Philippines, HABs particularly involving Pyrodinium bahamense species occur during the dry spell of the warm months.  The species feed on high nutrients out of other decaying phytoplanktons along with warm temperature.

Cordero said when HABs transpires, many shellfish such as mussel, clam, oyster, and scallop gulp large amount of toxins.  Any human who ingest such toxin-stuffed shellfish could suffer gonyaulax, or paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) that devastates the nervous system especially nerves and muscle protective layers.

Gonyaulax symptoms include tingling or skin itching, numbness, giddy or erratic behavior, drowsiness, fever, rash, and shaking.

HABs claimed the lives of 21 people in 1983, 17 victims in 1988, 11 others in 1993, and two in 1998, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources data showed.  The dangerous phenomena turned the fear fever along Bais Bay in Negros Occidental last July and in Palawan's Honda Bay last August.

DOST's Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development also recorded in 1983 278 PSP cases including 21 deaths in the coastal communities of Angeles City, Camarines Norte, Sorsogon, Masbate, Capiz, Carigara Bay, and Samar.

Meanwhile, Dr. Rhodora Azansa posted an article on HABs on the Internet www.portal.unesco.org HABs in Southeast Asia) while Dr. Dr. Milagros Lontoc-Relon published a booklet called Microalgae in Talin Bay that discusses the same subject in detail.  Both authors are marine biologists and NRCP members.