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Wayside_Wisdom
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We first heard the words "red tide" on a TV newscast in San Antonio TX, nearly 200 miles inland from the Gulf coast. "Red tides," he announced, "have been spotted in the Corpus Christi Bay area." ‘So what?’ we thought. ‘That won’t affect us,’ and we didn’t give red tides a second thought. We were wrong. We were reminded again by the National Park Service employee at the entrance to North Padre Island National Seashore. "Have you heard about the red tide? Well, it’s here. Our Gulf shore beaches have been invaded. It’s killing marine life and is so bad that you may have some irritation of your eyes, nose and throat and have coughing spells." Then the second – and third and fourth! – thoughts came to us in the form of questions. What is this red tide, anyway? Where does it come from? Is it dangerous for humans? Could it really spoil the most beautiful beach on the Texas Gulf coast? The campground host gave us some printed material that answered some of our questions. A naturally occurring algae – Karenia brevis – sometimes "blooms" in such dense concentrations that it turns the water surface a brownish-red. That’s the source of the name, red tides. Why it sometimes "blooms" so densely is unknown but it seems to be related to high temperatures and lack of wind and rain. Branches of the algae break off from these thick clusters. Then they are carried far and wide by the water currents. The real danger of the red tides, however, is the chemical warfare the algae wages on other marine life. As it floats silently through the water, it releases a toxin that paralyzes the nervous systems of fish, eels, shellfish and other form of underwater life. Paralyzed, they cannot breathe and they die. When a beach is invaded by this toxic algae, each incoming tide deposits thousands of dead fish and sea creatures on the shore daily. Malaquite Beach, one of our most favorite spots in the entire world, had, indeed, been invaded by red tides. It looked like a "killing field." The smooth, warm sandy beach was strewn with tens of thousands of dead marine-life bodies, with more arriving with each in-coming tide. The stench of rotting fish was strong. We had been cautioned about possible irritation of eyes, nose and throat. We experienced them all and the coughing spells got tiresome. There were other miseries, though, that nobody had warned us about. We were not prepared for the heart-heaviness and the soul-sadness when we tried again to walk those comforting sands now littered with innocent bodies. We’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning. In the beginning, after creating the heavens, the earth and all that was in them, God pronounced creation to be "Good." Surely that blessing did not include stacks of dead fish, killed by a natural toxin, did it? So, what happened to God’s good creation? All we can figure is that Mother Nature has a mean streak! |