COPPER ORE EXPERIMENT IN A LAGOON 



169 



in the lagoon apparently did not have a significant 

 effect on the mortality rates of the other species 

 in the live car. 



DISCUSSION 



Experiments conducted in our laboratories indi- 

 cate that more copper ore is required to reach 

 the toxic level for Gijmnodinium breve in lagoon 

 water than in Florida coastal water. This is 

 thought to be due to the large amounts of nat- 

 ural chelators and particulate matter present in 

 the lagoon as opposed to the relatively clear Flor- 

 ida waters. On the other hand, the Florida coastal 

 waters receive more tidal flushhig and dilution 

 than the lagoon, and we would expect the maxi- 

 mum level of copper concentration to be less per- 

 manent than that shown for the lagoon in figure 

 5. Even assuming a toxic level could be reached 

 in the Florida coastal waters, large quantities of 

 ore would have to be added at frequent intervals 

 which would make the cost prohibitive. 



SUMMARY 



An analysis of the biological and ciiemical data 

 shows that the copper concentration of the lagoon 

 was not increased to a level lethal to Gymnodinium 

 breve after the addition of 60 tons of ore. The 

 flora and fauna of the lagoon and organisms placed 

 there in dialysis bags and live cars showed no 

 significant effect attributable to the ore. The 

 copper level, after the addition of the ore, in- 

 creased to a maximum that was below the labo- 

 ratory estimate of the level toxic to G. breve (based 

 on Florida sea water) and then dropped to a 

 lower level. These results show that the ore is 

 not capable of maintaining a sufficiently high 

 copper concentration to be considered as a means 

 of controlling red tide outbreaks in waters simi- 

 lar in quality to that of the lagoon. 



Results of this experiment indicate that copper 

 ore does not have the desired characteristics of a 

 red tide controlling agent, and we recouuuend 

 that it not be used. 



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