Nearly 300 Sea Turtles Dead as Red Tide Plagues Southwest Florida

Hundreds of sea turtles have washed up dead along the southwest Florida coast as an ongoing red tide event persists in the waters. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has logged 287 sea turtle deaths since the virulent algal bloom started in October, the Associated Press reported. That figure is twice the average number of turtle deaths in those waters each year, Allen Foley of the commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute told the AP on Thursday.  Foley explained that the turtles get sick and die when their food gets contaminated by toxic bloom. >click to read<19:09

2 Responses to Nearly 300 Sea Turtles Dead as Red Tide Plagues Southwest Florida

  1. scott says:

    This is caused by the general population not fisherman! The same people that love turtles and give funds to people who say there saving them are killing them. More people,more houses,more sewage, yards golf corses,petisides,herbicides,and docks,piling’s this is what causes a redtide algie to build to where nothing can liue in it. This is a real problem but quit blaming the fishermen please for he lives,works, in the same place you do! We are not just playing, swimming, boat riding, or pleasure fishing for fun or enjoyment of going ,we. Are trying to make a living too.

    • - Moderator says:

      Scott, fishermen have gone to great lengths to do their part in conservation of these turtles, only to sadly watch this human caused degradation cause high mortality of these two specie of turtles, and other affected marine life. We need to do a better job of sounding the alarm that water quality is declining because of society’s ignorance of complicity. That turtle escaping the extruder is a tribute to innovative fishermen that solved a problem in the name of conservation.

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