Florida algae task force wants to tap experts from U.S., China, other nations

FORT PIERCE — The Blue-Green Algae Task Force Wednesday proposed tapping U.S. and international experts to better inform Florida's response to toxic algal blooms.

The statewide task force suggested hosting a Florida-based symposium and inviting experts from states bordering Lake Erie — including Ohio, Michigan and New York — where the intensity of harmful cyanobacteria blooms has spiked in the past decade.

The panel also proposed bringing in international scientists studying Lake Taihu, one of China's largest freshwater lakes, where ongoing cyanobacteria problems mirror what's plaguing Florida's Lake Okeechobee and its surrounding waterways.

"We need to collaborate, and we don't want to repeat the work that someone else has already done," said James Sullivan, a task force member and executive director of Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Fort Pierce, where the meeting was held.

[View a recording of the Dec. 8th meeting on the Florida Channel]