Special to the PRESS
Discovery of a red tide in the Galveston Bay area earlier this month has prompted leaders of the award-winning Red Tide Rangers to schedule training for volunteers who want to join the first responders should the harmful algal bloom (HAB) move into far south Texas waters.
The training will be held at The University of Texas-Pan American Coastal Studies Lab, located in Isla Blanca Park, from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Participants will learn how to collect water samples, identify the red tide organism — Karenia brevis — and count the number of cells.
Brigette Goza, Education Coordinator with the Coastal Studies Lab, will relate lessons learned from recent red tide events and Meridith Byrd, Texas Hazardous Algal Bloom Response Coordinator with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), will talk about the dangers posed by K. brevis and Dinophysis ovum, another HAB organism found in Texas coastal waters. Byrd will also explain the roles played by TPWD and the Department of State Health Services during a HAB and how the state uses monitoring data collected by Red Tide Rangers and others to determine bay closures, seafood advisories and public health warnings.
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