376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1957 



the least plentiful, so that any sudden increase in their quantity in 

 the sea may lead to a great growth of plankton. 



RAINFALL AND RED TIDE 



The Miami scientists, together with others from the University of 

 Florida and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, followed up these 

 speculations. The probability in mind was that excessive rainfall of 

 an equivalent type of mechanism might wash down into the sea un- 

 usual quantities of phosphorus dissolved out of the phosphate rocks 

 inland, or from the mining refuse by way of rivers. Unfortunately 

 the final analysis seemed to show that even in years of no red tide 

 there is sufficient phosphorus in west coast Florida waters to support 

 a red-tide outbreak. Why then is red tide not always present? A 

 possible clue comes from a study of rainfall and river discharge. 

 There seemed to be some connection between red-tide outbreaks and 

 a higher than average river discharge. But red tide had not developed 

 in all of the past years when rainfall or river discharge was high. 

 So something else must be involved. 



There were indications that in the shallow creeks and bays, separated 

 from Gulf of Mexico waters by a chain of islands, materials important 

 to the growth of "Jim Brevis" occurred and that the mixture of this 

 water with the sea water outside might provide exactly the right 

 conditions for red-tide development. 



RESEARCH ALMOST ABANDONED 



Careful detective work was almost brought to a stop at this stage. 

 Since 1947 red tide seemed to have disappeared and there was no way 

 of telling whether it might return in 1 year or 10 years. Consequently 

 public interest disappeared and with it also the funds necessary to 

 continue research. The problem now facing the scientist was not 

 red tide, but the difficulty of being able to continue investigations 

 without interruption. It is unhappily true that legislatures and gov- 

 ernments, being in the public service and sensitive to public opinion, 

 are apt to finance research only when an emergency such as the red 

 tide actually occurs, at which time, paradoxically, the necessary de- 

 lays in legislative machinery render it too late to be of service. As 

 soon as the emergency is over, all the painstaking groundwork which 

 could lead to the final answer is likely to be discarded. 



NEW OUTBREAKS REOPEN RESEARCH 



Although marine biologists from Miami were unable to follow up 

 their earlier discoveries in full measure and although the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service Laboratory at Sarasota was closed, scientific interest 

 continued since it was to be expected that at some undetermined 



