General examples include reductions in water filtering and detoxification by suspension feeders, submerged vegetation, and wetlands; and the increasing occurrence of harmful algal blooms, fish kills, shellfish bed and beach closures, and oxygen depletion.
Blooms of toxic algae, the phenomenon known as red tide, can kill fish, contaminate shellfish and make people ill.
The toxins they release kill fish, cause neurotoxic shellfish poisoning and contaminate drinking water.
The shallow seas, like the Baltic and the Adriatic, are subject to "red tides" -- harmful algal booms, due to nutrient over-enrichment, that kill fish and make shellfish dangerous to consume.
The organism kills fish, contaminates shellfish, irritates eyes and respiratory systems in humans and turns seawater the color of rust, Mr. Buzan said.
The plants use more than 200 billion gallons of water from nearby waterways each day for cooling, and they kill vast numbers of fish, shellfish and other organisms in the process, squashing them against intake screens or sucking them into cooling systems.
These eutrophic brackish ponds are "hot spots" for harmful algal blooms (HABs)—over 200 blooms from 23 different species were documented over the last 4 years, many associated with measured toxins, fish kills or shellfish health problems.
In such places red tides tend to form, some producing toxins that get into the food chain through shellfish and rise up to kill bigger fish (if there are any left), birds and even seals and manatees.
While those algae have not been linked to human illnesses in the United States, evidence indicates that they can kill underwater grasses, prevent oyster larvae from hatching, contaminate shellfish and damage other fragile bay life.
The toxins accumulate along the food chain through shellfish, shrimp, crabs and fish and not only kill sea birds and sea lions, but can kill people too.
