Here we go again, red tide in Florida
- Thread starter easy_b
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People are still getting in the water!
Dead fish all over the shoreline and folks in the water.
Can you imagine the smell!!!
Yup they are going to Be sick in a few daysPeople are still getting in the water!
Dead fish all over the shoreline and folks in the water.
Can you imagine the smell!!!
Dead fish covered many beaches in Sarasota and Manatee County beaches over the long Valentine's Day weekend, and the impacts of red tide rolled into Presidents Day on Monday.
Morning visitors walking along Lido Beach stepped over dead fish and avoided closed encounters to Gulf waters that reeked of red tide in Sarasota on Monday. Conditions that could cause respiratory irritation could be present at local beaches affected by red tide, but winds blowing away from shore at around 9 a.m. made for mild conditions at Lido Beach.
Red tide has lingered in Gulf Coast waters since Hurricane Helene last fall. A composite of satellite images and water sample results by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science shows that red tide has drifted toward Sarasota and Manatee County waters over the past eight days.
The bloom had largely stayed near the the Collier and Lee county area since the start of 2025, but slowly drifted toward Sarasota over the past week.
Many tourists visiting popular tourism locations such as Siesta Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island made social media posts about red tide impacting local beaches over the weekend, with many of them noting respiratory issues and seeing many dead fish.
"It wouldn't take more than about six to 12 hours of winds out of the south to bring that water up towards our shoreline," Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Director Dave Tomasko told the Herald-Tribune. "It could be that the fish could have been killed by the red tide, but not right there."
Where is red tide blooming in Florida?
Satellite images show that the ongoing red tide bloom could be losing some steam, even though impacts on Sarasota and Manatee County beaches are now seeing increased effects.
The most recent satellite imagery published by the NCCOS show decreased levels of red tide. Composite images show that the most severe impacts of red tide over the past week occurred in the Pine Island Sound area in Lee County.
Satellite images:National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
Water sample results:Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
On Monday morning, the Herald-Tribune confirmed the ongoing effects of red tide at Lido Key, Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island.
Manatee County rakes dead fish away from local beaches during scheduled times, but many new dead fish had washed ashore at Coquina Beach by late Monday morning despite noticeable signs of recent beach raking. Sarasota County does not rake dead fish from beaches unless the situation meets specific criteria.
Are Lake Okeechobee discharges causing the red tide bloom?
Environmental advocates have long criticized a practice used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release nutrient-enriched waters from Lake Okeechobee out into the Gulf because of concerns that it fuels naturally occurring red tide blooms.Tomasko questioned whether the ongoing red tide, which bloomed off the Florida gulf coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, has remained in local waters longer than the norm because of recent Lake Okeechobee water releases.
"One of the biggest things going on is that over the last couple of months we've taken over 100 billion gallons of water that was in Lake Okeechobee now is in the eastern Gulf of Mexico," Tomasko said. "Why is this red tide so big? Why is it so long lasting? They are lowering the lake by 4 feet, and they are pumping out about 1.3 billion gallons a day. They've been doing it for more than two months.
"Literally about 100 billion gallons of Lake Okeechobee water is now fueling this red tide," he said.
Background:Study links volume of water released from Caloosahatchee River to expansion of red tide
Also:Bradenton releases 450,000 gallons of partially treated sewage into the Manatee River
Tomasko said that it remains to be seen how the red tide bloom will react in local Sarasota and Manatee County waters. He said the most notable source of human-caused nutrient enrichment is Bradenton's wastewater treatment plant, which has discharged millions of gallons of sewage into the Gulf over the past year because of chronic infrastructure woes.
"Bradenton's wastewater treatment plant has had a lot of problems for a while, and they are certainly trying to fix them," Tomasko said. "But really the big local nutrient source that we should be concerned about is Bradenton's wastewater treatment plant. To me, that's probably the biggest localized nutrient issue that we have to get a grip on.
"You can make red tides worse with something as big as Lake Okeechobee or frankly as small as Bradenton," he said. "If you remember how bad red tide was in 2018, that was the worst year we had for wastewater overflows in Sarasota Bay. I don't think that was by chance."
Lingering red tide mucks up Sarasota and Manatee beaches through Presidents Day
Dead fish littered many Sarasota and Manatee County beaches into Presidents Day as red tide offshore of Southwest Florida continues.
www.heraldtribune.com
Dead fish covered many beaches in Sarasota and Manatee County beaches over the long Valentine's Day weekend, and the impacts of red tide rolled into Presidents Day on Monday.
Morning visitors walking along Lido Beach stepped over dead fish and avoided closed encounters to Gulf waters that reeked of red tide in Sarasota on Monday. Conditions that could cause respiratory irritation could be present at local beaches affected by red tide, but winds blowing away from shore at around 9 a.m. made for mild conditions at Lido Beach.
Red tide has lingered in Gulf Coast waters since Hurricane Helene last fall. A composite of satellite images and water sample results by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science shows that red tide has drifted toward Sarasota and Manatee County waters over the past eight days.
The bloom had largely stayed near the the Collier and Lee county area since the start of 2025, but slowly drifted toward Sarasota over the past week.
Many tourists visiting popular tourism locations such as Siesta Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island made social media posts about red tide impacting local beaches over the weekend, with many of them noting respiratory issues and seeing many dead fish.
"It wouldn't take more than about six to 12 hours of winds out of the south to bring that water up towards our shoreline," Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Director Dave Tomasko told the Herald-Tribune. "It could be that the fish could have been killed by the red tide, but not right there."
Where is red tide blooming in Florida?
Satellite images show that the ongoing red tide bloom could be losing some steam, even though impacts on Sarasota and Manatee County beaches are now seeing increased effects.
The most recent satellite imagery published by the NCCOS show decreased levels of red tide. Composite images show that the most severe impacts of red tide over the past week occurred in the Pine Island Sound area in Lee County.
Satellite images:National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
Water sample results:Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
On Monday morning, the Herald-Tribune confirmed the ongoing effects of red tide at Lido Key, Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island.
Manatee County rakes dead fish away from local beaches during scheduled times, but many new dead fish had washed ashore at Coquina Beach by late Monday morning despite noticeable signs of recent beach raking. Sarasota County does not rake dead fish from beaches unless the situation meets specific criteria.
Are Lake Okeechobee discharges causing the red tide bloom?
Environmental advocates have long criticized a practice used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release nutrient-enriched waters from Lake Okeechobee out into the Gulf because of concerns that it fuels naturally occurring red tide blooms.
Tomasko questioned whether the ongoing red tide, which bloomed off the Florida gulf coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, has remained in local waters longer than the norm because of recent Lake Okeechobee water releases.
"One of the biggest things going on is that over the last couple of months we've taken over 100 billion gallons of water that was in Lake Okeechobee now is in the eastern Gulf of Mexico," Tomasko said. "Why is this red tide so big? Why is it so long lasting? They are lowering the lake by 4 feet, and they are pumping out about 1.3 billion gallons a day. They've been doing it for more than two months.
"Literally about 100 billion gallons of Lake Okeechobee water is now fueling this red tide," he said.
Background:Study links volume of water released from Caloosahatchee River to expansion of red tide
Also:Bradenton releases 450,000 gallons of partially treated sewage into the Manatee River
Tomasko said that it remains to be seen how the red tide bloom will react in local Sarasota and Manatee County waters. He said the most notable source of human-caused nutrient enrichment is Bradenton's wastewater treatment plant, which has discharged millions of gallons of sewage into the Gulf over the past year because of chronic infrastructure woes.
"Bradenton's wastewater treatment plant has had a lot of problems for a while, and they are certainly trying to fix them," Tomasko said. "But really the big local nutrient source that we should be concerned about is Bradenton's wastewater treatment plant. To me, that's probably the biggest localized nutrient issue that we have to get a grip on.
"You can make red tides worse with something as big as Lake Okeechobee or frankly as small as Bradenton," he said. "If you remember how bad red tide was in 2018, that was the worst year we had for wastewater overflows in Sarasota Bay. I don't think that was by chance."
Lingering red tide mucks up Sarasota and Manatee beaches through Presidents Day
Dead fish littered many Sarasota and Manatee County beaches into Presidents Day as red tide offshore of Southwest Florida continues.www.heraldtribune.com
I can’t imagine the smell yuck
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