This interview originally aired on 10/16/2026 on South Texas Midday.
ROB BOSCAMP: Joining me is Liana Garcia, Natural Resources Specialist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Coastal Fisheries Division Ecosystem Resources Program in Brownsville. The department works with Harte Research Institute and other institutions across the state regarding an early warning network that focuses on harmful algal bloom along the Texas coast. Liana, thank you for your time.
LIANA GARCIA: Thank you.
ROB BOSCAMP: Let's start with asking more about the involvement your department has with others in the early detection network.
LIANA GARCIA: Texas Parks and Wildlife, we have a really good partnership with the Harte Research Institute, as well as other universities that are within the monitoring network along the coast. The way that we work together is they operate and they manage these instruments that are called imaging flow cytobots. And these instruments are very sophisticated, and they're able to detect and quantify the algae or the phytoplankton that we are most interested in in near real time. So these instruments are around the clock taking water samples and looking for these organisms. And when these cells are found above a certain threshold, a notification is sent to a group of people that consist of other researchers and sampling partners, as well as response agencies. We are made aware of this threshold that has been met; and it serves really well for the state of Texas as an early warning detection of the potential of a harmful algal bloom.
ROB BOSCAMP: What does your department do with that information once you get a notification?
LIANA GARCIA: Once we do receive that notification, we, as well as other state response agencies, we initiate our own internal response effort, respectively. So, for instance, the agency Texas Parks and Wildlife, we are in charge, and we have the responsibility of going out to investigate any fish kills, any mortalities related to harmful algal blooms as it affects our fish and our wildlife. So that can include not just fish, but also marine mammals, sea turtles, birds. So that's the sort of authority that we have as an agency. We go out and we make that assessment, and we have to run that assessment to grab a snapshot, an estimate of how many fish and how many wildlife are being impacted by a bloom.
ROB BOSCAMP: How essential is the system for institutions and the general public?
LIANA GARCIA: Oh, it's very essential because it's not just parks and wildlife that is receiving these notifications. It's our other response partners, such as the Department of State Health Services. They're the ones in charge of sampling the waters. As soon as they receive that notification, they do their own water sampling because they have the responsibility of closing any shellfish harvest areas that are open to the public, and therefore they're protecting public health as well as the Texas Division of Emergency Management that has similar responsibilities to protecting public health; and, of course your local county and city municipalities that share this information and and make the public aware of a bloom in in their area.
ROB BOSCAMP: That said, it may feel like a bit of a quiet season along the Texas coast. Is that normal this time of year?
LIANA GARCIA: The most recent bloom that the state of Texas had was back in 2015. We had a substantial bloom, and we haven't had one since then until this year in September. September kind of initiates the season, you would say, of harmful algal blooms such as your red tide event that we're seeing, it is normal. It's a phenomenon, and it requires just the right conditions. I know that red tide – Karenia brevis – blooms. They do like higher salinities, and before most recent rainfall events, we were going through a drought. We were getting zero to very little rain, and that increases salinity. So yes, it's quite normal. But we're also very fortunate that along the Texas coast, we don't get red tide blooms as frequent as you would say, like, the Florida coast does.
ROB BOSCAMP: Does your department follow or manage any Imaging Flowcytobots, or maybe others that institutions deploy along the Texas coast?
LIANA GARCIA: In our area, we are launching – as I said previously, we work with a network of universities. So, down in the part of Texas where I'm from, we are working with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where they do have an Imaging Flowcytobot that they are kickstarting in the very … near future to get that one running and also … part of the early detection … network system. It's just around the corner that we should get that IFCB up and running. Like I said, there are other universities along the coast. We work with A&M Galveston, A&M College Station, [University of Texas, Marine Science Institute], the Harte Research Institute, like you mentioned, Texas State Aquarium, Texas Sea Grant, Texas AgriLife, as well as a volunteer scientist group called the Red Tide Rangers; and that's a group that we rely [on] heavily down here, and one group also has just started in the Galveston area. These citizen scientists they go out and they collect water samples as well, and they're trained to also run the cell counts and report that data to us.
ROB BOSCAMP: How can the general public stay informed about harmful algal bloom in their area with assistance from or maybe outside the network, perhaps an app? How does that work currently?
LIANA GARCIA: So right now, what we have is we do not have an app … solely dedicated to red tide or harmful algal blooms along the coast. But we do put our web page out there, and it's the current status of red tide in Texas, and that can be found under our Texas Parks and Wildlife Department website. There, we provide weekly updates as far as where the respiratory symptoms are, and where the fish kills have been reported along the coast in these different bays across the coast. That's one way of keeping … abreast of the red tide event. Another partner that we do work closely with is our federal partner [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] – with the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. So, they have a really good system where the data that we collect here in Texas, we provide that data to NOAA, and NOAA uses that to update their satellite imagery. And they have a really reliable Texas forecast where they use satellite imagery as well as the data from our samples. And they use that to create a forecast on a map, and then they send out that information through a bulletin to anybody who is subscribed to receive those bulletins. So NOAA is also presenting and providing our data here in Texas, and then we also do use a social media platform like Facebook, where we also provide these updates to the public.
ROB BOSCAMP: Anything else you would like to add?
LIANA GARCIA: I guess I would just like to take the opportunity, like I said, to just acknowledge all of those sampling partners and response partners, and all agencies and organizations and universities that are involved that really make this response effort … manageable. And it's been a pretty smooth response event for this one – for this year – that started in Galveston. So we're making a lot of progress with our response efforts, and we're making a lot of contacts as well, building relationships. This is all for our constituents, for their health, for their awareness, and I would just like to acknowledge those groups that make it all possible.
ROB BOSCAMP: That is Liana Garcia, Natural Resources Specialist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Coastal Fisheries Division Ecosystem Resources Program in Brownsville. Liana, I appreciate your time and your insight.
LIANA GARCIA: Thank you.