From the print edition PAQUERA, Puntarenas – On Monday, the
ferry leaving Paquera, on the east side of the Nicoya Peninsula,
labored across the Gulf of Nicoya toward Puntarenas, churning
through ocean waters that switched from deep aquamarine colors
to scabby, ochre-red splotches. Since early February, the gulf,
and beaches and islands surrounding it, have been in the throes
of one of the worst blooms of red tide in recent years. “You can
smell it,” said Thomas Jones, a charter boat captain and kayak
guide out of Paquera. “It’s putrid.” Red tide is a naturally
occurring algal bloom. It’s hardly unknown in the Gulf of
Nicoya, generally blooming for several weeks in the early rainy
season months of April and May. But Jones said this year’s bloom
is the worst he’s seen both in terms of duration and intensity.
The algae that creates a red tide – single-celled organisms
called dinoflagellates that use the sun to photosynthesize and
grow – can secrete toxins which when absorbed by filter-feeding
shellfish such as m