Robert Jones, Director of the UT Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas said that brown tide shades the water column, causing it to look murky. This shading can reduce the light penetration into the water. Since the Laguna Madre is a sea grass driven ecosystem, it could effect it drastically. Research being conducted on brown tide's effect upon sea grass has shown that the grasses have, to this point, withstood the shading. However, sea grasses store carbohydrates they can use during hard times, Jones said, and only further research will determine how brown tide will effect sea grass in the long run.
Sea grasses provide a nursery and habitat for larval and juvenile fish and shrimp.
If the brown tide persists for a long time, it could kill off the sea grasses and change the Laguna Madre from a sea grass ecosystem to a phytoplankton ecosystem. Larry McEachron, Fisheries Resource Program Leader for the Coastal Fisheries Regional Office of the Texas Parks and Wildlife in Rockport, said that the fishing is at its best since the 1989 freeze, but they are concerned about brown tide's effects upon the wildlife. Although not complete, research being conducted has not shown any effect upon juvenile or adult fishes, he said. McEachron said brown tide was first sighted in May and June of 1990 in Baffin Bay. Since then it has spread from its point of origin and has been spotted in surrounding bays up and down the Texas coast.