COUNTS OF RED-TIDE ORGANISMS, Gymnodlnium breve, 



AND 



ASSOCIATED OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA FROM 



FLORIDA WEST COAST, 

 1960-61 



by 



Alexander Dragovich, John H. Finucane, and John A. Kelly, Jr. 



Fishery Research Biologists 



and 



Billie Z. May, Analytical Chemist 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



Galveston, Texas 



ABSTRACT 



This report presents counts of the red-tide organisms, Cymnoimium fcreve, and 

 associated oceanographic data for the period from January 1960 to August 1961. 

 Methods of collecting and analyzing samples are mentioned. Data on water tempera- 

 ture, water transparency, light transmission, cloud type, cloud amount, visibility, 

 sea direction, sea state, wind direction, wind force, salinity, inorganic phosphate 

 phosphorus, total phosphate phosphorus, nitrate-nitrite nitrogen, ammonia, total 

 organic and inorganic nitrogen, silicon, calcium, and alkalinity are presented. 

 These data were collected as a part of a study on the distribution and incidence of 

 C. breve and related ecological conditions and extend the records reported in a pre- 

 vious paper from 1959 to 1961. 



INTRODUCTION 



This is the sixth report on field studies of 

 the red tide in Florida's coastal waters by 

 the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. It pre- 

 sents counts of the red-tide organism, 

 Gymnodlnium breve Davis, with associated 

 oceanographic data. In our previous investiga- 

 tions (Finucane and Dragovich, 1959; Drago- 

 vich, Finucane, and May, 1961), copper studies 

 were made because of high toxicity of this 

 element to laboratory cultures of G. breve. A 

 preliminary analysis of copper data has shown 

 that the natural levels of this constituent in 

 Tampa Bay and adjacent neritic waters are 

 not immediately toxic to G. breve. Thus, the 



collection of water samples for copper de- 

 terminations was discontinued. Calcium, sili- 

 con, alkalinity, ammonia, total organic and 

 inorganic nitrogen, and light transmission 

 measurements were added as new parameters 

 to this study. The first two reports were by 

 Graham, Amison, and Marvin (1954) and 

 Marvin (1955a). A brief history and objectives 

 of the red-tide studies with the counts of 

 G. breve and associated oceanographic data for 

 the period 1954-57 were presented in the third 

 refwrt (Finucane and Dragovich, 1959). The 

 fourth report (Dragovich, Finucane, and May, 

 1961) covers the period from July 1957 through 

 December 1959 and also presents the counts 

 of G. breve with associated oceanographic data. 



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