Protect Our Coasts from Harmful Algal Blooms!

Florida’s southwest coast is grappling with the largest, longest red tide in more than a decade while Florida’s southeast coast is once again struggling with massive blue-green algae blooms. Dead fish, sea turtles and manatees are littering Florida’s sugar sand beaches, businesses that rely on tourism and recreation are struggling to survive, and beach-goers are dealing with serious impacts to their health and quality of life. Worse still- in the midst of this crisis, the national algal bloom research and prevention program (The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998) is on the chopping block. The U.S. Senate passed legislation to reauthorize the program before it the program expired, but because the House failed to take action, the program's authorization and funding ended on September 30, 2018.

VICTORY! After major advocay efforts, including an action alert by the Surfrider Foundation, Congress took action and passed the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2017 on December 20, 2018. The bill allows the government to authorize funding for harmful algal blooms of “national significance”, calls for additional scientific research on HABs, and reauthorizes the program through 2023. President Trump signed the bill in to law on January 9, 2019.