Remote sensing has been proven to be an effective means of monitoring red tides. The spectral information is an important basis for establishing a model to monitor red tides. The spectral curves of red tide events are analyzed and compared with multiyear monthly averaged spectral curves based on MODIS data from July 2002 to June 2012, as well as spectral differences at the same location during red tide presence and absence. A red tide monitoring algorithm is developed based on the background field to extract the red tide information of the East China Sea(ECS). With the application of the algorithm in the ECS, the results reveal that the developed model can effectively determine the location of red tides, with good correspondence to the results from an official bulletin. This demonstrates that the algorithm can effectively extract the red tide information. Remote sensing has been proven to be an effective means of monitoring red tides. The spectral information is an important basis for establishing a model to monitor red tides. The spectral curves of red tide events are analyzed and compared with multiyear monthly averaged spectral curves based on MODIS data from July 2002 to June 2012, as well as spectral differences at the same location during red tide presence and absence. A red tide monitoring algorithm is developed based on the background field to extract the red tide information of the East China Sea (ECS With the application of the algorithm in the ECS, the results reveal that the developed model could effectively determine the location of red tides, with good correspondence to the results from an official bulletin. This demonstrates that the algorithm can effectively extract the red tide. information.