‘Green Monster’ may be back, JU’s White and Pinto warn in Florida Times-Union

The Green Monster may be back, warn two JU marine science professors in a Florida Times-Union column.

“There is evidence we are seeing the Green Monster return,” Quinton White, executive director of Jacksonville University’s Marine Science Research Institute, told columnist Ron Littlepage for Littlepage’s recent column.

The Green Monster, Littlepage writes, is “a massive algal bloom that turned much of the St. Johns River into a green, gooey, stinky mess in 2005. It reappeared in 2009.”

Gerry Pinto, a research scientist at JU, is also quoted, verifying that he saw the bloom in May during an aerial survey for manatees in the river.

Flying over the blooms at 500 feet, Pinto said, caused “respiratory distress” for him and his pilot.

“This is a public health risk,” he is quoted as saying.

To read the entire column, click here.