Mote Glider

A team composed of Mote Marine Lab and Rutgers University personnel is equipping Slocum gliders with red tide detectors to form an early warning system in coastal Gulf of Mexico waters off Florida. When satellites detect heightened levels of chlorophyll, indicating an algal bloom, a glider mission can quickly determine whether it’s red tide or benign algae. This can allow, for example, clam farmers to remove their clams from the water before the red tide moves inshore. “A couple of days’ warning can save a harvest,” notes Mote senior scientist Gary Kirkpatrick. Long-term closures due to red tide have been devastating to the area’s clam industry.

The reddish plankton Karenia brevis that blooms sporadically in Gulf waters produces a powerful nerve toxin, affecting marine life and coastal dwellers. The triggering mechanism for these blooms is not well understood, so the early detection capability is important to mitigating their consequences. The key to the system is the Optical Phytoplankton Detector, known as “BreveBuster,” developed at Mote Marine Lab, for discriminating K. brevis abundance in water samples. The instrument is contained within the glider’s payload section.

Mote Glider

This technology is likely to have applications elsewhere because incidence of harmful algal blooms like red tide are increasing around the world from causes that range from pollution to introduction of exotic species and climate change.