FGCU planning to use ultrasonic buoy devices to help control algal blooms

A grant from the state provided to Florida Gulf Coast University will help control harmful algal blooms that will soon come to our backyard.

They look like tiny houses but the MPC-Buoy device runs on solar power and will help control algal blooms.

“It’s a big grant. It sounds awesome because it’s a million-dollar grant,” said Dr. Bill Mitsch, Director, FGCU’s Everglades Wetland Research Park.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection awarded FGCU’s Everglades Wetland Research Park in Naples the grant to run a pilot experiment. Director Bill Mitsch says the goal is to control algae.

“Half of that money initially goes to pay for these devices. They’re like a buoy that floats in the water,” Mitsch said.

They work by allowing devices to send sonic waves, which ripple in the water to send algae down to the bottom of the water body. It acts as a way to disrupt the algae.