Red tide

[rancher44]

I have a cat in Punta Gorda FL. How bad is the red tide and anyone have an idea how long it will last?

I badtalk my friends on my dock but no one knows the true extent of thee impact other than it being

[redsky49]

From local reporting (I am in North Florida), the tide this year is one of the worst on record. It is moving northward, and has resulted in major fish and turtle kills.
It is expected to last well into the fall. Apparently the odor is so intense on the beaches that it is also driving away tourists. As a result, local tv advertising has increased for the west coast beaches, hoping to reverse the exodus.
Our Governor, not known for his environmental concerns, finally issued a "state of emergency" regarding this.
Added to the green algae outbreak this spring, well.. welcome to toxic Florida!

[redsky49]

This:

[redsky49]

A good article regarding the Red Tide from National Geographic:


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/e...e-life-toxins/


My wife is a sea turtle fancier, and the deaths of all these sea turtles has broken her heart. Is is especially lethal to the little hatchlings which have been leaving their nests along Florida's coast for the last couple months.

[svHyLyte]

The "Red Tide" is a natural occurrence about this time every year but has been exceptionally bad this year due to the unusually heavy rains and (reportedly) consequent run-off that have carried naturally occurring phosphates and artificial fertilizer run-off into the water in far greater concentrations than usual. The stuff has endured as the winds have continued out of the southwest which is, itself, unusual but accounts, in part, for the constant rains. The aerosols have reached very high concentrations all along the coast and extending inland, in some places, for several miles. Friends of ours on Longboat Key have quit the place and other friends further south, inland in Charlotte Harbor, are preparing to do so as well. Our daughter is the Activities Director at a Resort in Naples that is normally jammed at this time of year but has been all but abandoned by visitors in the last few weeks. The fish kills have been stupefying, to say nothing of the loss of dolphins, manatees and turtles; and the stench of decaying remains pervasive. Hazarding a guess I suspect the situation will continue for another month or two, until the season changes.

FWIW...

[denverd0n]

Yeah, it's bad. No one has any idea how long it will last. I work for one of the state's major universities and asked a guy I know in the marine biology department about this, just the other week. His comment was that the very best estimate they might come up with is hardly better than throwing a dart at a calendar. They just don't know.

[weavis]

When I lived in Florida, and on the boat for a while, it seemed like an eternity. Lots of cleaning and lots of smell. (in Charlotte Harbour and Englewood.)

As stated this year will be bad/is bad.

Sorry.

[Sojourner]

Haven't seen it (I'm in Italy) but a friend of mine sent me this... shot from the deck of her boat. Heartbreaking....

[S/V Illusion]

We live in the Sarasota area, the heart of red tide country in Florida. While not possible to predict the duration, it typically subsides in the Fall. What the sensationalized and exaggerated news writes and some of the pictures people have posted here are not representative of anything except very isolated areas. Our marina has no dead anything nor can we perceive any smell.

It's election season so I'd bet some of the hysteria is politically motivated.

[Attikos]

Red tide, green algae and sargasso weed, oh my!