September 2, 2010
The third annual Sarasota Bay Scallop Count, organized by Sarasota Bay Watch, is complete and the results are in. They aren’t good – The total number of scallops found: 0. The Great Bay Scallop Count, organized by Tampa Bay Watch also turned up disappointing number of scallops: 32.
“Water Quality” is to blame by both organizations A very vague term. It could be almost anything. Red tide has been certainly been part of the decline. But there were very little red tide blooms last year and the number of scallops went from 674 in 2009 to only 32 this year for Tampa Bay. When a red tide does come through it has a 100% mortality rate on scallops and other filter feeders.
Without more research it looks like it’s just going to remain a mystery as to what’s up with the scallops.
Categories: Florida Red Tide News.
August 30, 2010
Just published in the journal, Aquatic Toxicology, is a study by Dong-Ha Nam and colleagues on the effects of brevetoxins on sharks. Brevetoxins are the toxins that are released by organisms like Karenia Brevis, the organism that is behind Florida Red Tide. The conclusion? Brevetoxins modify the neurochemistry of shark brains, making them over-excited and even killing them.
The authors of this study focused on lemon sharks entirely, they believe however that this research applies to all sharks.
Here’s how the study went:
Continued…
Categories: Education, Florida Red Tide News, Red Tide Information.
Tags: brevetoxins, science
August 23, 2009
The Federal Government’s E.P.A. has finally begun following several townships and a few counties here in FL to set limits on the amount of red tide causing pollution that can be dumped into lakes, rivers streams, etc. by Farms and businesses.
This is a huge boon because we all knew that the local townships and counties that were primarily farmland and thus the primary cause of the fertilizer in the watershed, weren’t going to do this. After all they’re run by the farmers that are putting this stuff in the water (not on purpose mind you), in the first place.
If these limits that the EPA limits puts into effect are properly researched and implemented, there should be a huge decrease in the amount of algal blooms in Florida. In as little as one year we could see Florida Red Tide levels fall to their historic, natural levels. That means we could go years or even decades between red tides and that when they do occur they will last days or weeks instead of years.
This is huge news for Florida Red Tide Solutions! It’s half of what we’ve been saying is needed all along. The important half. The other half is red tide bloom mitigation methods. Well if there is hardly ever a red tide, mitigation becomes much less important doesn’t it?
Continued…
Categories: Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, News, Prevention, Red Tide Information.
May 17, 2009
Lacking leadership and legislation from the State of Florida, many townships cities and counties are making their own laws banning or partially banning the use of fertilizer. The latest legislation to be enacted is from Lee county.
Sounds like good news right?
Sure it is. However the fertilizers that the homeowners in coastal communities aren’t as much as their governments put into the water over fertilizing and over watering their medians, parks and the yards of thier public buildings.
Even worse are the farms up river. these farms put Tons per acre of fertilizers on their lands, not even Naples puts that much fertilizers on their medians (although . . .)
these counties where the farms are will never ban or limit fertilizers. however the fertilizers that wash off their lands pollute the communities down river of them. The entire southern half of Florida (except the developed portions) is a river. It’s called “The River of Grass”. It also happens to have a traditional river running through it, The Caloosahatchee river. It’s through these rivers that thousands of tons of fertilizer flows into the Gulf and Bays and feed the red tide.
The state is the only org that can do anything about this. But they are still trying to pretend there’s nothing unusual about our red tides . . .
Categories: Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, inept government.
Tags: fertilizer, Lake O, lee county, river of grass
May 16, 2009
Florida Citizens and visitors have been using the report red tide (thanks!) page to tell us about what they thought was a large red tide bloom along the east coast of Florida. Well Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute begs to differ.
Algae
They say it’s a less lethal “diatom” bloom. I’m not sure if they are purposely trying to confuse you or they are trying to be scientifically accurate. But it’s an algae bloom folks.
Continued…
Categories: Education, Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, News.
Tags: algae bloom, east coast, FWRI, HAB, red tide report, Thalassiosira
May 11, 2009
Sometimes I regret not going with my instinct. When I first heard about a fish kill in the Myakka river, and realized that it was right after a moderate rain, my instinct said red tide or blue green algae was to blame. I pass by the Myakka river frequently in my travels and I had been noticing that it had a lot of regular algae in it.
All that is just guess work though and not science. Combine that with the incredible demands on my time lately, and I decided not to post anything.
Well it turned out I was right, but I still don’t regret posting my initial thoughts. I should have posted that it was a fish kill, and the conditions were appropriate for an algae bloom.
Next time.
links:
Miami Herald news story
TBO News Story
Google it
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, Rumors.
Tags: blue green algae, fish kill, myakka river, red tide, red tide report
May 4, 2009
It looks like Lee County is not only learning how to prevent red tide, but is also learning that all they have to do is try and they’ll make a difference. They’ve recently enacted legislation which while poorly written and still not very effective, will make a difference.
Here’s some of the points the legislation covers:
The new ordinance stipulates that fertilizers containing nitrogen or phosphorus cannot be used during the four-month rainy season of June through September.
Fertilizer application is also prohibited within 10 feet of any body of water, seawall or wetland.
All spreaders must be equipped with a deflector shield to better target application and to prevent errant fertilizer from being spread into water buffer areas and hard impervious surfaces like roads, driveways and sidewalks.
Clippings and trimmings cannot be swept or blown into ditches, drains or any body of water, or onto any road or sidewalk.
Professional landscapers are required to register with the county and have at least one employee certified through a training program offered by the University of Florida Lee County Extension Service.
What’s the poorly written parts:
Continued…
Categories: Education, Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, Prevention, Red Tide Information, inept government, red tide mitigation method.
Tags: lee county, Prevention
February 22, 2009
Sarasota FL – Mote Marine recently concluded a 4 year long study that shows:
Red tide harms birds and sea turtles.
Sea turtles take longer to be rehabilitated from red tide exposure than birds.
Yup, that’s it. That took them 4 years and God only knows how much of the money that was granted for the specific purpose of exploring the link between pollution and red tide blooms.
Still no good answer from them as to why they are refusing to study this issue in earnest.
There is a tiny little piece of good news about Mote Marine however. Disney and the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary are performing some research into a drug called Cholestyramine for the treatment of red tide in birds. Mote and FWRI and jumping n the bandwagon. Hopefully they aren’t there to maliciously influence test results and will actually be helpful.. One would guess from their previous actions that they would want this to work because this drug is made by an established company. Mote and FWRI have a history of appearing to serve these companies instead of the people and animals of Florida.
Categories: Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, News, Red Tide Information.
Tags: Cholestyramine, mote, sea turtles, Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary
February 21, 2009
I’m not sure how helpful this is but some researchers have discovered that sometimes plankton, algae and other microbes get trapped between layers of ocean water moving in different directions.
Read the full article:
red tide research story
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, Red Tide Information.
Tags: research
November 25, 2008
Plankton Parasites
The research into the little known (until reported here), area of Plankton Parasites (or parasitoids ), is paying off. In case you haven’t heard, there is a species of micro organisms that feed on specific species of plankton (K. Brevis is one of them). It seems that when several harmful algal blooms like red tide blooms occur in a series for more than a few years in a row (like the last 15 years in Florida or the last 5 in Maine) the problem may be that this parasite can’t survive something and thus can’t flourish enough to reduce the amount of K Brevis in the water.
Here’s some quotes from an article about it:
Using a new technique that allows researchers to track the parasites as they infect the plankton with fluorescent markers, Guillou and her colleagues were able to monitor both an invasive species of plankton and the parasites for three years in a coastal estuary in France. What they were able to see was the very early infection of the plankton by the parasite, and then the eventual swelling and bursting of the plankton as the parasite’s many offspring broke free — hungry to infect again.
“We hypothesize that when a bloom occurs, these parasitoids are not able to infect the invasive species,” Guillou said.
quoted news story
Categories: Actions, Education, Florida Red Tide News, News, Red Tide Information, Rumors, red tide mitigation method, solutions.
Tags: parasitoids, plankton parasites, science, solution
April 9, 2008
The Sierra Club is hosting a Red Tide Forum this Thursday, 2pm, at the Manatee Community College campus in Venice, in the Selby Room at the Professional Development Center of the campus.
Topics covered will be Red Tide, fertilizers and water resources.
Larry Brand, a professor of marine biology at the University of Miami will be the featured speaker. Larry Brand is known for his research linking human activity — fertilizer and phosphates — along Florida’s coastline to the increase in red tide and other harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Categories: Actions, Education, Florida Red Tide News, Red Tide Information.
January 9, 2008
A new Red Tide beach conditions hotline (and accompaning web sites), have been created. I’m not sure I should be even writing about them as there are several already.
Mote Marine Labs has a “Beach Conditions Reports for Southwest Florida” page that uses google Maps technology. Some web developer put a lot of work into this one and it shows. It bases the info on the red tide report within on “old school technology” Mote used to use this old school technology for their old version of this page which was just a text based report like ours. That was fine before. It gathered all kinds of data because it was open to the public (via e-mail) and then Mote started getting all antagonostic and political and red tide events started disappearing from the report and were being reported as less intense as they were etc. etc. Nowadays, sadly, Mote still can’t be trusted for accurate information about red tide.
Of course you can also dial their phone hotline for a recording the number is: 941-BEACHES (1-941-232-2437).
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, News, Rumors.
December 16, 2007
The health Dept in Indian River county Florida has finally issued a “red tide health advisory“. This does not include signs on the beaches. In fact it appears that you have to call them to get the info. Most people don’t call the health Dept before they go to the beach.
Indian River County and several other along the central east coast of Florida have been suffering an “off and on” moderate intensity red tide bloom for several months now.
see video: Continued…
Categories: Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, Red Tide Information.
December 16, 2007
4 Dead dolphins washed ashore in Volusa county recently. Red Tide exposure hasn’t been confirmed yet by the scientist at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in Orlando but it certainly appears as that at the moment as the area is afflicted by a sever red tide bloom at the moment and there non other immediately visible signs of trauma or Illness.
Sadly dozens of sea turtles have been found dead in the area as well.
History teaches us the birds will be next if this red tide bloom is mitigated (destroyed) promptly. Of course we don’t do that here in America for some reason.
read a msm story on this
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report.
December 1, 2007
I’m all for the study of red tide. We can’t ever learn how to control red tide if we don’t study it, in fact. But it downright makes me angry when money that is supposed to be going for the study of red tide is instead diverted to some kind of hustle. That what’s happening with the new “Florida Red Tide Center” here in lovely St Petersburg, Florida.
Continued…
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, News, Red Tide Information, Rumors, inept government.
November 15, 2007
Is it another wink and nod recognition for my work on Florida red tide? The work that helped get the Federal grant money to study the effects of rainwater on red tide blooms, may have been why they have decided to put the new enter to develop models to forecast Florida red tides at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, right down the way from my offices.
Continued…
Categories: Actions, Education, Florida Red Tide News, News, Rumors.
November 15, 2007
The Red Tide bloom in north west Florida may be being fed by nutrients from the Mississippi river. Researchers led by Richard P. Stumpf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have concluded that nutrients are pushed by seasonal winds in the fall from the Missippi river to the west coast of Florida and feed red tide blooms.
Continued…
Categories: Education, Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, Red Tide Information, Rumors.
October 31, 2007
Two stories made the press recently that make it seem there’s something very wrong with Lee County’s leadership.
The first story tells us that Lee County Health Dept has declared the beaches “Clean” in the midst of a huge red tide bloom.(1). I’ll quote the entire article here because this paper likes to take down articles after a few days and only allow access to them through a paid service, which would be fine, except, it doesn’t work).
How on earth they are trying to justify area beaches clean in the middle of a red tide bloom, frankly boggles my mind. So I thought, maybe I’m wrong. So I looked it up 
and called some people that lived down there. Sure enough they said the beach was “Awful” and to be avoided. How this translates to “clean” by any stretch of the imagination is unclear. I’ve got a call in to the Lee County Health dept. for comment but as of yet haven’t heard back from them. I’ll update this article if I do.
The second disturbing piece of news (2) from Lee county is about a bridge and some fish. Last week workers used explosives to destroy two old drawbridge pilings. They anticipated a large fish kill. Using explosives in water kills all fish in the immediate area. When less only 33 small fish (not one snook, redfish or keeper sized grouper) floated to surface they were happy and called that a good thing.
This is the most uneducated statement I think I may have ever heard. What they have unintentionally done is take a sampling of the fish that live in this area. And this sampling has shown a gross lack of fish in an area where there should have been thousands of fish.
This is a bad thing, not a good thing! Fish are often the apex predator n water areas. If there wasn’t many fish that means there’s something drastically wrong with this ecosystem.
Does Lee county want there waters free of fish, like a swimming pool or something?
People of Lee county: PLEASE START STANDING UP TO YOUR GOVERNMENT AND DEMAND THAT THEY WORK FOR YOU NOT AGAINST YOU. Think about what will happen if you don’t.
After all, this is the same county government that thinks the way to relieve traffic is to charge people to use the roads so that poorest of the poor will not use them as much. (3)
Continued…
Categories: Actions, Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, News, Rumors.
October 28, 2007
Blue green algae bloom? Not Florida red tide? That’s correct. Blue green algae is actually a name commonly used to describe many types of algae. Although blue green algae is usually described as “non-toxic” This editor has seen cases of burn like rashes on the skin, nausea, respiratory distress etc linked to exposure to blue-green algae in the press before.
The Blue Green Algae’s potency toxicity depends upon which exact species it is. “Some species of cyanobacteria produce neurotoxins, hepatotoxins, cytotoxins, and endotoxins, making them dangerous to animals and humans. Several cases of human poisoning have been documented but a lack of knowledge prevents an accurate assessment of the risks.”
source
Categories: Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, News, Red Tide Information.
October 28, 2007
The recent red tide bloom off the northwest coast of Florida is effecting Alabama as well. Evidently they’ve been directly effected by either the same Florida red tide bloom or a new red tide bloom. According to Everything Alabama:
“Oyster beds in Bon Secour Bay were closed Tuesday after tests by the Alabama Department of Public Health revealed the presence of the organism that causes red tide.
The organism builds up in oysters as they filter water, making them unsafe to eat, sometimes for weeks after the red tide is gone.
Fish kills reported along the Gulf beaches between the Florida line and Fort Morgan over the last few days were also attributed to the red tide bloom, according to state officials.
Those officials believe the red tide organisms likely blew in from Florida waters or from offshore waters south of Alabama.
While red tide levels along the Gulf beaches Tuesday were high enough to cause minor throat irritation in people exposed to sea mist at the water’s edge, a few places, such as Cotton Bayou, experienced much higher levels over the last few days, state tests showed. “
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, News, Red Tide Information.
October 28, 2007
I just returned from a week (10/20 through 10/27,2007) on Sanibel Island. When we arrived onto the island and went to the beach the gulf water looked murky and had a fish odor that gave me some concern since I live on a 7 mile island (Ocean City) in New Jersey and knew this was not a normal odor. However, by Wednesday 10/24 there where dead fish of several types, Hammerhead sharks, starfish, octupus, scallops, shells some as long as 14″ long with muscles in tack washing onto the beach. Later in the day as the tide came in there where thousands of what looked like brown sponges (or poop) in varying sizes with a horrendous odor washed ashore. This continued until you could not go near the beach or enjoy sitting outside because of the odor. Unfortunately, it took me talking to several residents of the island to find out that it was “Red Tide”. I was appalled to think that there were no signs regarding this matter posted by the local municipality on the beach or postings in the local resturants, gas stations or stores. Even more upsetting was watching numerous families with young child walking through the aforementioned while picking up shells and some even swimming in the gulf water. Sanibel Island was a true disappointment to me this year.
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, News, Red Tide Information.
October 19, 2007
This comes to us from a man named Nick who lives in Pensacola Florida. He’s not a staff member or affiliated with us in any way. He just wanted people to know what it’s like living with the latest red tide bloom. So we (with his permission) re-printed his e-mail here:
I was out at Pensacola Beach today, inside Fort Pickens National Seashore
State Park, and there is a serious Red Tide happening right now. (as of this
afternoon.) The red tide was so bad that just being near the water caused my eyes to
burn, I started coughing from the fumes coming out of the sea spray.
I’m not a scientist, but I know when somethings is wrong. I can say that in the past 15 years
of me living in Pensacola I haven’t seen the red tide get this bad. There was tons of
dead fish, miles and miles of dead fish. Even the insects were dead. Dead butterflys,
dead dragon flys, dead flys… etc etc. Dead birds. Basically all the marine life
within 50 yards or more to the beach was dead.
It was awful. I couldn’t stand it any longer and I had to leave. The fumes from the water were just too toxic for me to even be on the beach breathing the air. The air was toxic. I got out of there as fast as I could. I have run on Pensacola Beach almost everyday for the past 2 years
now, and I’ve seen red tides come and go, but I have never seen a red tide like this
one.
I just wanted to let ya’ll know, that Pensacola, FL. is having a serious red tide
event happening right now.
– Nik Johnson
Pensacola, Florida
Getting out of there as fast was a wise move!
-TxS
Categories: Education, Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, Red Tide Information, Rumors.
October 17, 2007
NOAA is still finding several blue-green algae blooms in different places throughout the state. Trichodesmium the scientific name for blue-green algae is usually found in places that don’t get flushed well by the tides. Despite the the insistence from state officials that it’s harmless, everywhere it pops up people come down with burns on their skin, respiratory distress etc.
Categories: Environmental News, Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, Red Tide Information.
October 17, 2007
FWRI is finally responding to large red tide outbreaks on the west coast and east coast of Florida. They don’t do anything about red tide other than to test for it’s presence mind you, but at least they’ve now done that.
The results show wide spread red tide blooms effecting large areas of the north portion of Florida. What they don’t show is that these red tide blooms have apparently been shrinking, growing and moving about for weeks now. Large fish kills have been washing dead fish ashore all over beaches.
Continued…
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report.
October 14, 2007
Red Tide Reports are coming in from numerous press reports of red tide and fish kills in Northern Florida. Even more numerous are the amount of citizen based Red Tide Reports from various Florida locations. These included fish kills and a number of human health related issues, some of them sounding quite grave. Editors note:
Thanks for writing in, each and everyone of you. For those of you that are in more serious trouble or your loved one is, I’m praying for ya!)
The red tide blooms hasn’t caught FWRI’s eye yet. FWRI is the state agency that does most of the red tide tracking. They don’t monitor the water that far north in Florida for red tide blooms because it is a rather unlikely spot for them to occur.
Fortunately, at least some local governments in the effected areas are testing for red tide. This will help document the occurrence of this red tide bloom or blooms. It also gives the Press whatever it is they need before they’ll run a story evidently. because there has been a lot of local press on this particular red tide bloom.
In addition there have been lots of citizen based red tide reports coming to us here at red tide Solutions. Read our latest Red Tide Report to see where we’ve been getting reports of red tide in various locations from people throughout Florida.
Thanks for your patience all. The Florida Red Tide Report is now up to date and will stay that way.
Categories: Florida Red Tide News, Florida Red tide report, News, Red Tide Information.
Hot Articles (most comments)