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Silver wants to put a message out to local surfers, hoping she can work with them and get to the bottom of the issues
By Gwen Mickelson
Local water woman Suzanne Riedinger, who has been surfing, swimming and paddling in Monterey Bay waters for more than 40 years, is now so allergic to something related to red tides that she develops sinusitis in even a light bloom.
Another longtime local surfer wrote in an e-mail that some of the worst sinus infections he has ever endured have happened after surfing in the red tide, to the point where he created a rule for himself never to ride waves in a red ocean.
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the phenomenon of red tides and whether it's safe to surf in them here in the Monterey Bay, speaking with Mary Silver, a professor of ocean science at UC Santa Cruz.
Silver said the organisms found in our local waters that create red tides have no ill effects on humans, although a puzzling new algae found here for only the past two years could be an eye irritant. Overall, she said, Monterey Bay is probably one of the cleanest areas to surf. But because several readers wrote to me describing effects that they think could possibly stem from surfing and swimming in red tides, Silver wants to put a message out to local surfers, hoping she can work with them and get to the bottom of the issues.
To recap, red tides come from a nearshore bloom of single-cell algae called dinoflagellates. Sometimes they're miles long, and they usually occur during the summer months. At night, the micro-organisms, when tossed around in a breaking wave, produce a blue-green phosphorescent glow. Scientists have suggested various explanations for red tide, according to the Encyclopedia of Surfing ? that it's caused by upwelling of cold water mixing with warmer surface water, from a sudden increase in nutrients from land-based runoff or from a sedimentary disturbance on the ocean floor ? but the exact cause remains a mystery.
Steve Peters, a water quality specialist with county Environmental Health Services, wrote in an e-mail that the office gets regular reports from beachgoers with complaints of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory effects ? "all the usual waterborne illness symptoms when there is a red tide present," he wrote.
Such effects could come from some other agent, said Silver.
"I once had a doctor call me, and he had some surfers who were chewing on kelp as a family ritual," said Silver. "One of the young kids got violently ill, and it turned out it was a bacterial toxin that can be associated with some water conditions."
Though red tides could potentially carry various allergens that might affect some people and not others, viruses and bacteria are probably much more dangerous out there than algae, said Silver.
"Though there are real worries with some of the algal species, such as the type that's in Florida, that type of toxin is present in very low quantities here," she said.
Ocean athlete Riedinger wrote in her e-mail that she has noticed the red tide has increased in intensity and duration in recent years. She can only paddle in the red tide if there is only just a hint of a bloom, and even then she develops a rash from contact.
Silver noted that, oftentimes, when she's out in the bay doing research, she collects such substances as pine pollen and butterfly wings in the water samples she's taking to measure algal species. Also, she said, "there could be minor algae that, if it became more prevalent, it could be causing a problem. They could be very real and just in low quantities."
A variety of factors could be causing surfers' red tide woes, but, said Silver, "if people say there's a problem, we believe them."
That's why catching it when it happens is the only way to go at it, she said.
"If there's a way that I as a scientist and other people here could work with the surf community, I would love that," said Silver.
She advises people to e-mail
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if you suffer effects from a red tide. Even better, if you can capture a sample of the suspicious water in a bottle or something, Silver can analyze it and send you a picture of whatever's in there.
Such teamwork would be a ground-breaking partnership, said Silver.
"No one has done this kind of work with the community," she said. "I'd sure like to know what's in the water when people have symptoms. I can't do the bacterial and viral part, but I can do the algal part."
So are red tides giving dyed-in-the-wool surfers such as Riedinger the blues?
Naaah.
"Being a diehard and emotionally, mentally and physically in need of my ocean time," she wrote, "I simply work around it as best I can."
- SURF QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "You still haven't figured out what riding waves is all about, have you? It's that place where you lose yourself and you find yourself. You don't know it yet but you got it. It's right there." ? Patrick Swayze, as Bodhi, "Point Break," 1991 from "Surfing and the Meaning of Life".
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