Strategy session set for invasive algae

By Libby Wells, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Monday, April 21, 2003

Palm Beach Post

Caulerpa brachypus. No, it's not a veggie-eating dinosaur. It's one of the nastiest marine menaces to hit South Florida. And now it's here -- in the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon -- and the environmental community is on high alert.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, representatives from a myriad of watchdog agencies will meet at the Fort Pierce branch of the St. Lucie County Library, 101 Melody Lane, to devise a way to get government to do something about the creeping, exotic weed that's blanketing coral reefs, smothering sea grasses and crowding out native marine life.

"People are very focused on the Everglades, but this algae is something that has spread from South Florida at an alarming rate," said Kevin Stinnette, executive director of Indian Riverkeeper and board member of the St. Lucie County Conservation Alliance.

"It's quite possible the river is on fire, and we want to determine whether it's time to yell fire or not."

The keynote speaker of the evening is Brian Lapointe, a scientist with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce. Lapointe is doing a two-year study of the growth patterns and cause of the invasive algal bloom with the backing of a $279,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

He calls it "the kudzu of the sea" and believes nutrient-rich waste-water facilitates its spread.

In early March, Lapointe found the stuff growing off Jensen Beach. Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, said divers have seen it near Sailfish Point and in the river.

But Jeffrey Beal, who works for the Jensen Beach field office of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said his office did not find the algae during its winter sea grass study. Twice a year, he said, the DEP takes readings of 75 fixed points in the lagoon.

"We did that in early March," he said. "We did not find Caulerpa brachypus in the lagoon."

Beal, who will be at the meeting, said he knows the stuff is a big problem on offshore reefs in Palm Beach County but said its presence in the Indian River Lagoon has not been confirmed.

"We manage the lagoon, so we'll be the ones that try to confirm where it might be located," he said. "Anytime you talk about invasive species, we take a great interest in that."

Beal said representatives from other government agencies might attend the meeting, too.

Stinnette hopes so. "There's a lot of science that needs to be done," he said. "At this point, there hasn't been an allocation of resources to even begin the science. There's going to be political pressure to bring the state and its agencies to bear on this problem."

- libby_wells@pbpost.com