VIDEO: House OKs $34 million for red tide research

Red tide research could get a big boost of green under a bill federal lawmakers passed Friday.

The U.S. House voted 251 to 103 to authorize $34 million a year in federal funding for scientists to study harmful algal blooms nationwide -- including Florida’s red tide that sickens beachgoers, litters beaches with piles of dead fish and threatens the state’s tourism industry.

Scientists aren’t counting the money just yet though.

The legislation, which still must pass the Senate, only authorizes the spending. Congress would have to appropriate it during the budget process before the money could be spent.

Still, even the promise of new money for red tide research pleased scientists.

“It’s a good encouraging step,” said Barbara Kirkpatrick, senior scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

Red tide scientists have been down this road before.

In 2008, Congress authorized $90 million over three years for harmful algal bloom research, but appropriations have fallen far short of that mark.

Last year, for example, the federal red tide program spent $11.6 million, according to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, says he will keep pushing for full funding for red tide research.

Mack, a sponsor of Friday’s legislation, said on the House floor Friday that he remembers having red tide for maybe one week out of the year when he was growing up in Southwest Florida.

“Not too long ago, we had 13 months of straight red tide off the coast of Florida, in Southwest Florida,” he said.

“Clearly, something is changing, something is happening and right now, frankly, I’m not sure we can trust the research that’s out there.”

Kirkpatrick, at Mote, called the remark “unfortunate.”

Mack spokeswoman Stephanie DuBois said Mack was not taking a shot at the research itself but the process by which research is funded.

In his remarks Friday, Mack praised the bill for provisions he said would leave decisions about how to allocate red tide research money in the hands of scientists and not politicians.

The bill also would require that research be peer-reviewed and not duplicative before it is funded, Mack said.

The research would fit into a new framework of regional action plans that would be developed under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Federal red tide money has paid for research cruises by the science arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to study how red tide blooms start in the Gulf of Mexico and where they go.

At Mote, researchers are using automated torpedo-shaped sensors to patrol Southwest Florida waters for red tide and are developing computer models to predict blooms of the microscopic algae.

An injection of federal money would shore up Florida red tide funding at a time when budget woes in Tallahassee have cut off state funding for research.

Connect with Eric Staats at www.naplesnews.com/staff/eric_staats/.