New technology to help remove toxic algae in Southwest Florida

There’s proven technology that can help remove toxic algae and it’s being used in Southwest Florida in the next few months.

AquaFlex technology was tested last year in the Caloosahatchee River. The inventor and founder, Scott Smith said it removed some of the cyanobacteria.

It’s like a sponge and soaks up nutrients from the water.

Smith is working with the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program and Florida Gulf Coast University to test it yet again in the next few months but this time, they are measuring how much of the algae toxins the foam will remove.

They just received funding to test it on a much larger scale.

“To our knowledge, we are the first ones to get a permit to use technology like this to capture and remove the algae and related toxins in the water,” said Smith.