RED TIDE OCCURRENCES IN INDONESIAN WATERS AND THE NEED TO ESTABLISH A MONITORING SYSTEM

D. P. PRASENO*, Y. FUKUYO**, R. WIDIARTI***, and SUGESTININGSIH*. * Center for Oceanographic Research, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia. ** Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, the University of Tokyo, Japan. *** Center for Marine Studies, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia.

Extended Summary The sea and other water bodies are most important parts of Indonesia, since nearly 70% of the country consists of water. The sea area could be divided into 3 parts, the shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf in the west part, the shallow sea on the Sahul Shelf in the east part, and deeper seas in between. The total sea area is 7.9 million km2, with a coastline of around 108,000 km. The coastal waters are usually very productive, especially estuaries that receive nutrient inputs from land. Phytoplankton blooms often occurred, especially in coastal waters, frequently causing discoloration of the seawater. The discoloration of seawater is referred to as red tide. Fishing activities are conducted in coastal waters, including fish farming. The rich estuaries are suitable sites for farming activities. Phytoplankton blooms usually provide positive impacts on fisheries. The high primary productivity of the waters will indicate good fishing grounds, and will also provide excellent sites for fish farm activities. However, blooming of certain species of phytoplankton may also have negative impacts. If a bloom is very dense, it may cause a drop in the dissolved oxygen of seawater during the night, which in turn may harm other marine biota, especially those kept in cages. Red tide is also caused by phytoplankton species that produces certain toxins. This type of red tide is called Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB). HAB may directly affect fish species kept in cages, or the toxins may accumulate in the flesh of marine biota, which in turn become toxic. It will then be disastrous if humans consume marine products. Indonesia began to study and record red tide/HAB occurrences since 1991 until 1999. The program was set up by training fishery personnel to do routine plankton observation and sampling. The samples were then sent to the Research and Development Center for Oceanology LIPI (now: Research Center for Oceanography LIPI) for analysis. Phytoplankton Blooms in Estuaries In Jakarta Bay, the diatom, Skeletonema costatum, is the first phytoplankter to bloom. The color of seawater will change into a brownish color. This diatom species is able to grow first, because of its tolerance to low salinity conditions. The nutrient input from river water will then first utilized by this species. This type of situation is common for estuarine waters in Indonesia. When water salinity becomes normal, other diatom species may bloom, and we will have a multi-species bloom. This condition may remain for several days, until nutrients are used up by the phytoplankters. The most common species to bloom after a

Skeletonema bloom are diatom species of the genera Chaetoceros, Bacteriastrum, Thalassothrix, Thalassionema, Rhizosolenia, and Pseudo-nitszchia. All mentioned diatom species have photosynthetic pigments, so that seawater will have a yellowishgreen color. Chaetoceros bloomed in Ambon Bay during 1998 (Sidabutar et al., 1999) and discolored seawater to a yellowish color. Many types of substances, brought in by river water, heavily pollute the Jakarta Bay. Three big rivers flow into the bay, the rivers Cisadane, Ciliwung, and Citarum respectively. Each river carries pollutants coming from human settlements, industries, as well as agriculture activities or other sources. The Jakarta Bay is regarded as being heavily eutrificated. This condition triggers the bloom of the dinoflagellate, Noctiluca scintillans, after a Skeletonema bloom, instead of the usual diatom species. Noctiluca scintillans is a phagocytic phytoplankter without pigmentations. But a bloom of this species will cause a greenish color of seawater due to pigments of its symbiont, Pedinomonas noctilucae. A bloom of this species in Jakarta Bay may reach a number of 2,135 cells/l (Praseno & Adnan, 1978), while in Ambon Bay it reached 1.3 x 103 cells/l (Sidabutar et al., 1996). Other red tide occurrences in Jakarta Bay were caused by Prorocentrum minimum, on September 1993, which caused seawater to become brownish (Adnan, 1994). While Gonyaulax sp. bloomed in November 1992 causing a red-brown discoloration. Cell counts were 127,800 cells/l. In Kao Bay, Halmahera, East Indonesia, frequent blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate, Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum, occur (Wiadnyana et al., 1994). The blooms started at the beginning of the rainy season, causing severe problems to human health. Seawater changes into a brownish-red color, which by the local people is called air beracun (poisonous water). Sumadiharga (1977) first reported this phenomenon, but only in 1993 Wiadnyana et al. identified the causative organism (Wiadnyana et al., 1994). Another Pyrodinium bloom was recorded in Lampung Bay, which reached an abundance of up to 8.9 x 104 cells/l or about 300 times from the previous week (2.5 x 102 cells/l). The bloom followed by a dense population of Skeletonema and ended by a dense population of Chaetoceros (Widiarti et al., 2000). In Ambon Bay, this species also bloomed in 1994, with a cell count of 1.6 x 106 cells/l (Wiadnyana et al., 1995). It is of importance to study the movements of this toxic species, in order to be able to locate possible infected areas, and avoid human casualties. Wagey et al. (1998) reported a reddish-brown red tide in Ambon Bay in November 1997, caused by Alexandrium affine. Cell counts reached a maximum of 60 x 106 cells/l, with an average of 2 x 106 cells/l. This was the first report of such a bloom in Ambon Bay. Phytoplankton Blooms in Open Seas The open seas rarely experience phytoplankton blooms. In Indonesian waters two occasions of red tide occurred in the open sea. The first recorded occasion was a bloom by the cyanobacteria Trichodesmium erythraeum in the Java Sea. Delsman (1939) was the first to report blooms of this species in the Java Sea. During July to September, 1991 this species was also blooming in the western part of the Java Sea. The number of trichomes counted reached 1.2 x 106 trichomes/l in July, which increased to 4.2 x 106 trichomes/l in August 1997. The water mass flowed westward and reached the coast of East Sumatera. At this coast the phytoplankters were washed into fish ponds, causing severe problems to the cultured shrimp in fish ponds along the eastern coast of Sumatera

(Adnan, 1992). Blooming of this species could be linked to the El Nino phenomenon (Praseno et al., 1999). Trichodesmium are usually found away from the coast, because it does not tolerate low salities (Delsman, 1939). This must be the reason of their blooming away from the coast. Trichodesmium also bloomed off the coast of Jakarta on October 1997, with a density of 2.5 trichomes/l. Looking at the arrangement of bundles built up by trichomes, the species was identified as Trichodesmium thiebautii (Praseno et al., 1999). Trichodesmium also bloomed in the Ambon Bay in 1995 (Sidabutar & Praseno, 1999). Trichome counts reached 3 x 104 trichomes/l, and discolored seawater to a pinkish color. (Table 1 shows recorded red tide occurrences in Indonesian waters) Praseno et al. (1999) reported a second bloom of phytoplankton in the open sea. In December 1997 red tide caused by the dinoflagellate, Gonyaulax spinifera, occurred in the waters around the islands Pieh, Pandan, Air, Cibadak, Siberut and Sikuai, in the Indian Ocean, off the west coast of West Sumatera. Seawater turned to a reddish-brown color and cell counts reached 13.5 x 106 cells/l. Visibility of seawater reduced from 20 m to only 0.5 m. The red tide caused mass mortality of marine biota, which resulted in severe damage to fisheries of the area. The condition only recovered after 6 months. Gonyaulax spinifera does not produce toxins, and mass mortality of marine biota is caused by lack of oxygen in seawater. At depth of 10 m the water temperature was 100 C, much lower than the usual 29-300 C. This suggests that an upwelling process was in progress in the Indian Ocean. Table 1 list all red tide/HAB occurrences in Indonesian waters recorded from 1991 to 1999.
Table 1. Red tide occurrences in Indonesian waters (1991-1999)

Year 1991 1992 1992 1993 1993 1994 1994 1995 1995 1996 1997 1997 1997 1998 1999

Phytoplankton species Trichodesmium erythraeum Gymnodinium sp./ Gonyaulax sp. Gonyaulax sp. Noctiluca scintillans Prorocentrum minimum Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum Noctiluca scintillans Trichodesmium sp. Chaetoceros sp. Alexandrium affine Gonyaulax spinifera Trichodesmium thiebautii Chaetoceros spp. Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum

# cell/l 12.8 x 106* ? 12.8 x 104 32 x 106 ? 2.3 x 106 1.6 x 106 1.3 x 106 3 x 104 3.1 x 104 6 x 106 13.5 x 106 2.5 x 106* 2.5 x 104 8.9 x 104 Up to 2.5 x 104 Up to 2 x 104

Common Skeletonema costatum Common Diatoms (mainly Chaetoceros spp.) * trichomes/l.

Location Jawa Sea Manokwari, Papua Jakarta Bay Jakarta Bay Jakarta Bay Kao Bay, Halmahera Ambon Bay Ambon Bay Ambon Bay Ambon Bay Ambon Bay West Sumatera Off Jakarta Bay Ambon Bay Lampung Bay Estuaries Estuaries

Red Tide Monitoring System A program on the establishment of a monitoring system was carried out in 1996, named SEAWATCH INDONESIA (Adibroto, 1996). Several buoys were anchored at selected locations to collect meteoro- and hydrological data. Three buoys were positioned in and near Jakarta Bay for meteorology, waves, current, temperature, salinity, oxygen, algae, nutrients and radioactivity. The system did not run well, mainly due to failure of sensors to collect data after some time being submerged in seawater. Many fouling organisms grew on the sensors, which resulted in the low quality of data. This system is supposed to collect meteorological and oceanolographycal data, which should further be developed to improve quality of data. The Indonesian Institute of Sciences is planning to conduct a 10-year program on Census of Marine Life, starting next year (2004). The program covers six components, which are: 1. Taxonomy of Marine Biota, 2. Habitat/ecosystem, 3. Hydrology/water quality, 4. Social-economy, 5. Ocean Biographic Information System, and 6. Bioprospecting. Component 3 deals with monitoring of environmental condition, including studies on pollution, red tide, sediment transport, primary productivity, impact of pollutants on marine life, etc. The study areas are Makassar Strait (focusing on East Kalimantan), Sulawesi Sea (focusing on Bitung area), and North Moluccas (focusing on Ternate area). These sites were chosen with respect to the hydro-oceanography and water quality aspects. References
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