Mounds of red algae greet Naples beachgoers

The algae was thickest at Doctors Pass and tapered north along the beach and wasn't present at Clam Pass.

Officials have said the algae isn't a health threat.

Jon Staiger, natural resource director for the city of Naples, said the algae is a natural part of the coast environment, though he added that development along the coast could be a factor in the magnitude of the event.

"We are continuing to put more and more nutrients into the water," he said. ". . . so I think there could very well be a link between the (algae and) continued development of the area."

Algae, like other plants, grows better with nitrogen or phosphorus, and it is no secret that stormwater runoff from land and the water coming down the Caloosahatchee River is potent with the stuff.

Stormwater runoff is from a busy Collier County rich with nitrogen that comes for the exhausts of cars as well as that from lawn and golf course fertilizer.

Water coming down the Caloosahatchee is also loaded with nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture north and south of Lake Okeechobee. Though algae can be beneficial, providing food and shelter for all sorts of sea life, too much of it can overrun natural plants and crowd out animals.

Collier County government, which usually does beach cleanup, has its mechanical beach rake in for an overhaul, said Ron Hovell, the county's coastal projects manager. But Staiger said crews from the city will be cleaning up the algae beginning today.

There are no plans to collect and test the algae to determine a possible source of the nutrients, natural or man, that might have fed it, he said.

A similar but more severe algae event occurred in August, when the seaweed was piled up along stretches south and north of the Naples Pier and almost continuously from Doctors Pass to Fourth Avenue North.

As well, cleanup crews were called into action in 1998 when mounds of seagrass from Florida Bay rolled ashore after Hurricane Georges blew past Naples.

The events in August and this week are different, though, because the stuff washing ashore is seaweed, likely a type of red algae.

Though the algae is red, it isn't red tide, officials said.

According to Collier County officials, no red tide was present in water samples taken Monday from Lely Barefoot Beach, Clam Pass Beach, the Naples Pier and South Marco Beach.