Tag Archives: Red tide
Red Tide Crisis: ‘It’s a ghost town out there’ – Fishermen and Protestors ask DeSantis for Emergency declaration
“It’s a total ghost town out there, I mean, I’ve talked to fishermen that are fishing for mullet and other fish, they can’t hardly find nothing,” said Steven Morrow, a commercial fisherman based in Tampa. Hundreds gathered near the St. Petersburg Pier on Saturday for a “rally for red tide.” The group was standing in solidarity with city councilors, who earlier in the week, passed a resolution asking Governor Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency due to red tide. Commercial anglers say they want to step in to help clean up the dead fish, while their regular jobs aren’t there, video, >click to read< Protesters call for help dealing with Tampa Bay fish-killing red tide – More than 100 people took part in the event along the St. Petersburg waterfront carrying signs and shouting, “Save our bay, make polluters pay.” >click to read< -12:24
Editorial: Florida needs to get its act together to fight Red Tide
The awful smell of dead fish across Tampa Bay cries out for a better response. Red Tide is overwhelming St. Petersburg, and the damage to the fisheries, tourism and public health is increasing with no end in sight. State and local officials need to collaborate on the cleanup. Residents, visitors and businesses need to be kept informed. And Florida needs a better strategy for managing these toxic algal blooms. >click to read< 17:13
Another ‘red tide’ left 15 tons of dead fish on Tampa Bay’s shore. Experts warn of more destruction
The dead fish have been washing up on the shores of Tampa Bay in West Central Florida since at least early June, thanks to a natural phenomenon known as “red tide”, large “blooms” of toxic algae that spread through the water. They can harm sea creatures and even humans. Since Tropical Storm Elsa swept Florida last week, the problem has become worse, as strong winds pushed scores of lifeless fish onto the shores of St. Petersburg, surrounding residents and visitors in a miasma of rotting death. >click to read< 11:01
Commercial fisherman frustrated by red tide fish kills destroying his livelihood
Dead fish by the thousands are causing a smelly mess in the water and on the shorelines around parts of Tampa Bay. Commercial fisherman David Gill was shocked when he first saw it Monday morning near the mouth of the Alafia River. “I wanted to scream and rip my hair out because I watched my livelihood die right in front of me,” says Gill, who has been fishing these waters since he was a boy. For years, Gill and other fishermen have traveled miles to get away from red tide, which he believes is exacerbated by pollution, including the release from Piney Point. He’s angry about it. video, >click to read< 10:59
Let’s be proactive with red tide
Would it be smart of us to be prepared for whenever red tide strikes again? What could it hurt to get rid of the dead fish? The public beaches and waterfront homeowners certainly don’t benefit from smelly dead fish around. It costs to dump into our landfills and waste them. Can we find uses for them? They are fabulous fertilizer, rich in nitrogen. This nitrogen could feed citrus or other crops instead of red tide. It’s challenging to find anyone willing to harvest this mess. But shrimp boats were used successfully of Pinellas County. Commercial fishermen picked up fish in several counties. Can we get started ahead of this by lining up independent contractors now, before red tide returns? It’s not cheap, but fewer dead fish in the water could significantly reduce red tide’s impacts to our economy and noses. >click to read< 10:39
Our water quality problems are a tangled mess, but they can be fixed
What can we or local governments do about red tide? Another major outbreak could be disaster. But it could be necessary to forces us to address the sources of nutrient pollution. Reality is government ignores everything it can. To fix things, the sources have to be outed, and then it will take money to clean things up. But elected officials need contributions to get elected and re-elected. It’s expensive to campaign. What do those big contributions buy? >click to read< 09:04
Crabbers remember horrors of red tide. They’re hoping for a better season this year
Born and raised in Cortez, Lightning Campbell has fished and crabbed the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for most of his 72 years. With memories still fresh of how last year’s red tide outbreak drastically affected the stone crab harvest, Campbell says he will put out 4,000 stone crab traps this season. Asked what he thinks about prospects for this year’s stone crab harvest, which begins Tuesday, Campbell says it’s too early to tell. >click to read< 09:05
Hit-or-miss hauls end another unpredictable Florida stone crab season
“We knew guys who were fishing 500 traps and would catch less than six or seven pounds,” Gandy said. “Lots of (crabbers) just didn’t do it this year.” Meanwhile, those crabbing to the north, from around New Port Richey to the panhandle, saw some giant hauls, especially early in the season, which started in October. The director of one commercial fishing association described Florida’s season overall as “pretty disastrous,” unless you were between Hudson and Crystal River where “they were breaking records.” “What’s crazy is the rest of the world had a horrible crab season,” >click to read<12:57
‘The Worst I’ve Ever Seen It’: Lean Stone Crab Season Follows Red Tide in Florida
On a good day, in a good year, a captain fishing off the shores of the Florida Everglades might catch 400 pounds of one of the state’s unrivaled delicacies, the stone crab. These are not good days. As the sun began to set on a recent cloudless afternoon, the kind that makes it unthinkable to spend winters anywhere but in Florida, Rick Collins piloted the High Cotton to a dock in Everglades City, the fishing village where three generations of his family have made a living trapping stone crab. His crew offloaded the day’s haul onto a huge scale. Seventy-three pounds. “This is about the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Mr. Collins, 69, a crabber for more than half a century. >click to read<13:37
Red tide hurting commercial fishing industry
The red tide has decimated the commercial fishing industry off the coast in southern Florida, bringing it to a halt for those who fish the surf. Rich Vidulich’s sanctuary has turned into a toxic, deserted wasteland, choking out life as he knows it. “It’s 100% deterrent. You don’t catch pompano in this,” he said. It’s a depressant. It really is. It famishes you mentally.” Catching pompano is his identity. Video, >click to read<12:05
Red tide and green slime: Florida faces epic statewide fight with algae
We may smell it first, warned environmentalist Rae Ann Wessel. She was right. Along a wall of mangroves, the stench last week advertised of something to be buried. It was a greeting to Fort Myers’ algae horrors. Green slime and red tide are invading the Fort Myers region’s inshore and offshore waters, slaughtering marine life and threatening a more sinister outcome: Toxins produced by a green-slime variety may link to neurodegenerative illnesses, say some scientists who are investigating. For decades, Florida’s watery environment has been sickened by pollution from septic and sewer systems, storm water and fertilizer from landscaping and agriculture. That “nutrient” pollution, with nitrogen and phosphorus flavors,,, Video, >click to read<14:24
Pasco shrimpers’ incomes cut by red tide
The red tide crisis is hitting home for Pasco County shrimpers. They worry their way of life could be coming to an end. With dead fish washing ashore by the truckload, the demand for bait shrimp is shrinking. It comes down to a drop in demand. Bait shops aren’t buying bait shrimp in the red tide zones. And sport fishermen are staying away. That means, they’re not buying what fishermen catch. The shrimp is not the kind you see on your plate, it’s the kind other fishermen use to catch fish. Video >click to read<14:22
Local fishermen like to clean up on the water. This certainly wasn’t what they had in mind.
Red tide is still hanging around Manatee County’s coastline, making waters murky and beach conditions unpleasant. There are a lot fewer dead fish floating in the water, though. That is thanks in part to local fisherman Nathan Meschelle, who operates a commercial fishing operation called Inseine Fish Harvest out of Palma Sola. Knowing that he would be temporarily out of work when red tide arrived, Meschelle called Manatee commissioner Carol Whitmore and offered to help clean up in the aftermath. Dean Jones, public works manager for the city of Anna Maria, reached out right away.>click to read<16:43
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
Red tide clears off Collier County, but stone crab catch still down
The red tide lingering on Florida’s Gulf coast last fall and this winter has cleared up in Collier County. Fish kills were reported in December in Collier, but the algae blooms that bring thousands of dead fish to shore and cause beachgoers to cough and sneeze have, for the most part, stayed north in Pinellas and Sarasota counties, according to a report Friday from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Clearer water would be good news for the price of stone crabs and for local stone crab fisherman, who were hammered early this season by a red tide that followed Hurricane Matthew in October. The fewer crabs caught, the higher the market price for Southwest Florida’s most popular seafood. Catch totals are still down in Goodland compared with typical years, said Damas Kirk, of Kirk Fish Co. “Red tide isn’t showing so much anymore, but I think it’s done some damage,” Kirk said. “I think the stone crabs are having a bit of a food supply issue and are starving somewhat.” Read the story here 15:50
‘Historic’ red tide could keep oyster reefs closed for months
Oyster season won’t be reopening any time soon in Mississippi. The CMR was told the required red tide testing to make sure oysters are safe for harvest, could take up to three months. “We’ve never had one at this level or this intensity. This is a historic event,” the DMR’s Joe Jewell said at this morning’s special meeting of the CMR. Jewell was talking about the red tide event which closed oyster season nearly two weeks ago. Read the article here 12:41
Red tide destroying fish population in Florida
The largest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade has killed thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and may pose a greater health threat if it washes ashore as expected in the next two weeks, researchers said on Thursday. <Read more here> 20:44
