What makes a rip tide dangerous?
Most of our planet is covered with seas, and the color of the ocean is basically blue. It may mirror the glowering gray of the clouds, or sandy shoals below may tinge it muddy brown. It may be tinted brown or green with floating algae, and sometimes a patch of the sea turns red. So called red tides have been known since ancient times, and sometimes people thought the sea had turned red with blood. The water was slimy to touch and almost always thousands of fish were washed up dead and dying on the beaches. Some months ago such a red tide occurred along the shores of California, and in l947 a disastrous red tide occurred off the west coast of Florida. These grim events are rare and arrive without warning. It has taken the scientists a long time to find what causes them. They now know what ocean conditions make them happen and what causes fish to die in untold numbers, but they still are unsure of how the fish are killed. The ocean is a watery world of teeming populations, and its surfac
