Florida's red Tide Catastrophic

[RockyMidnight]

https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2018/08/28/harmful-algal-blooms-florida/?ea.tracking.id=18HPXGJAXX&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0OSUj_y23QIV10wNCh0bdQ6PEAAYASAAEgJ6uvD_BwE

http://myfwc.com/redtidestatus

[Debp]

22 hours ago, RockyMidnight said:

https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2018/08/28/harmful-algal-blooms-florida/?ea.tracking.id=18HPXGJAXX&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0OSUj_y23QIV10wNCh0bdQ6PEAAYASAAEgJ6uvD_BwE

http://myfwc.com/redtidestatus

That's so awful about it killing so much sealife!!!  We haven't heard about it on our news.  I wonder how long it will last?

[RockyMidnight]

5 hours ago, Debp said:

That's so awful about it killing so much sealife!!!  We haven't heard about it on our news.  I wonder how long it will last?

Hi Debp. No one really knows. It's the worst Red Tide on record and already has put several businesses that rely on tourist effectively out of business. Like the first link explains, this is a natural occurrence that is part of nature's balance, but in the last 70 plus years is progressively exacerbated by human agriculture, industry, and population density (creating sewage run off). All these activities put excessive amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen in the water, which these algae thrive on. Between the toxic chemicals they produce from digesting nutrients and the shear density of them, what doesn't get killed bu the toxic agents suffocates because these creature deplete the water of oxygen. You simply cannot imagine seeing so many floating dead fish that the water under them isn't visible at all! Between the difficulty breathing near the water and the smell of rotting fish and other sea creatures, you can't go to the beaches here. That this extends out to 40 miles offshore, and boating is no longer an option either, including offshore sport fishing which is a major industry in Florida. Add to this the crap that is still covering large portions of the Gulf bottom from that Horizon oil platform disaster, it's a wonder anything is alive out there. The Gulf is also a major spawning ground for many fish and sea life species, including Giant Bluefin Tuna, and we're looking at decades of recovery time, assuming this magnitude of Red Tide does not happen again. That's unlikely though as the cost of prevention is too great.  The last major red Tide was in 2006 and that wiped out a lot of sealife, even though it was no where as extensive as what's happening now. Back then the political BS was how the State would resolve this. Yeah, they helped make it worse. I live about 15 miles as the crow flies from the Gulf, and on days with a decent west wind, I can detect the algae toxins in the air. They are very slight, but they are there. 

Ok, enough whining for me today!

Cheers!!! 

Edited September 14, 2018 by RockyMidnight

[Willa]

We have red tides on the west coast as well.  It always accompanies warnings that the shell fish are not save to eat at this time.  They usually correspond to the el Nino and Nina cycles.

[other one]

could the red tide have anything to do with all the oil on the bottom of the gulf from the Horizon disaster?   

[Omegaman 3.0]

I remember when I used to live in a southern California beach town, We'd get these red tide plankton blooms, I don't know, maybe every 5 years or so. I never knew of any pasrticular cause for them never occurred to me to wonder. The varied in intensity, and in duration. A really bad one would last quite a long time, and fish would wash up on the shore dead. The water would stink pretty badly. Warnings about eating shell fish, we a permanent fixture, but during red tides, that would also be publicized in the news.

Except for the stinky one, I thought they were pretty neat whan I was a teenager. Why, because at night, they were spectacular. The waves crashing on the shore, luminesced with a blue or blue-green light, very pretty. It happened wherever there was motion in the water. In the milder red tides, the water maintained most of it's transparency. We would fo out sailing at night, and my sister and I would lay on the deck of the boat, up near the bow, so that as the boat broke through the wind chop, the bow wake would glow. When the boat broke through the water a little harder, hard enough that it was a little noisy, often there would be a school of fishes under the water, that the fishes would dart of in every direction. When that happened the would leave trails of blue-green behind them, that looked a bit like aerial bomb explosions in a fireworks show, much to our delight. Going out for a night swim, was also cool. Treading water would leave glowing turbulance from our hands and feet.

One other thing. One time i took some water home in a bottle. You could shake the bottle, and light would be produced by the water, pretty cool. I left the bottle on a shelf in my bedroom. One night, I entered the room while it was dark, and my footfall onto the wooden floor, was enough energy to "set off" the glowing water on the shelf. It was exceptionally bright, and startled me. Apparently, the plankton in the bottle had multiplied, and the bottle was brighter and more sensitive that usual. I was quite amazed that it was picking up vibrations from the floor.

Edit: If you type " Bioluminescent waves in San Diego, Red Tide Blue Waves " in the Youtube search box, you can see the glowing waves as I described them.

[Amanda Frances]

32 minutes ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

I remember when I used to live in a southern California beach town, We'd get these red tide plankton blooms, I don't know, maybe every 5 years or so. I never knew of any pasrticular cause for them never occurred to me to wonder. The varied in intensity, and in duration. A really bad one would last quite a long time, and fish would wash up on the shore dead. The water would stink pretty badly. Warnings about eating shell fish, we a permanent fixture, but during red tides, that would also be publicized in the news.

Except for the stinky one, I thought they were pretty neat whan I was a teenager. Why, because at night, they were spectacular. The waves crashing on the shore, luminesced with a blue or blue-green light, very pretty. It happened wherever there was motion in the water. In the milder red tides, the water maintained most of it's transparency. We would fo out sailing at night, and my sister and I would lay on the deck of the boat, up near the bow, so that as the boat broke through the wind chop, the bow wake would glow. When the boat broke through the water a little harder, hard enough that it was a little noisy, often there would be a school of fishes under the water, that the fishes would dart of in every direction. When that happened the would leave trails of blue-green behind them, that looked a bit like aerial bomb explosions in a fireworks show, much to our delight. Going out for a night swim, was also cool. Treading water would leave glowing turbulance from our hands and feet.

One other thing. One time i took some water home in a bottle. You could shake the bottle, and light would be produced by the water, pretty cool. I left the bottle on a shelf in my bedroom. One night, I entered the room while it was dark, and my footfall onto the wooden floor, was enough energy to "set off" the glowing water on the shelf. It was exceptionally bright, and startled me. Apparently, the plankton in the bottle had multiplied, and the bottle was brighter and more sensitive that usual. I was quite amazed that it was picking up vibrations from the floor.

Edit: If you type " Bioluminescent waves in San Diego, Red Tide Blue Waves " in the Youtube search box, you can see the glowing waves as I described them.

Wow the blue waves are so cool! 

[Neighbor]

Hi, Red tide comes and goes.  Some years more so than others. It is often hyped as never having been so bad before.  It does adversely affect more people nowadays since people come here all year round now. Can't imagine why, but they do.

It used to be that  one could walk across US 19  in the summer without bothering to look up for traffic. Today one would be splattered no matter what season or time of day, if they tried it. We were in the motel business on US 19 years ago there simply was no summer ocupancy other than commercial accounts with the then aerospace industry. The beach motels were essentially closed come summer, the entertainers from the beach resorts would book in on US 19 to gather locals as there just was no one on the beaches come summers. Now even the locals don't try to get to the beaches in summer can't drive through all the traffic. Even our local's havens of Dog Beach on the Clearwater Causeway, and Dunedin Causeway, are pretty much packed this month even in this heat.

So yes of course when red tide comes now the newer people say hey what's this, the end is coming the end is coming, get me a politican to solve this problem the end is coming.

 

From Red Tide FAQ by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"Is red tide a new phenomenon?
No, red tides were documented in the southern Gulf of Mexico as far back as the 1700s and along Florida's Gulf coast in the 1840s. Fish kills near Tampa Bay were even mentioned in the records of Spanish explorers."

[RockyMidnight]

On 9/17/2018 at 11:30 AM, Neighbor said:

Hi, Red tide comes and goes.  Some years more so than others. It is often hyped as never having been so bad before.  It does adversely affect more people nowadays since people come here all year round now. Can't imagine why, but they do.

It used to be that  one could walk across US 19  in the summer without bothering to look up for traffic. Today one would be splattered no matter what season or time of day, if they tried it. We were in the motel business on US 19 years ago there simply was no summer ocupancy other than commercial accounts with the then aerospace industry. The beach motels were essentially closed come summer, the entertainers from the beach resorts would book in on US 19 to gather locals as there just was no one on the beaches come summers. Now even the locals don't try to get to the beaches in summer can't drive through all the traffic. Even our local's havens of Dog Beach on the Clearwater Causeway, and Dunedin Causeway, are pretty much packed this month even in this heat.

So yes of course when red tide comes now the newer people say hey what's this, the end is coming the end is coming, get me a politican to solve this problem the end is coming.

 

From Red Tide FAQ by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"Is red tide a new phenomenon?
No, red tides were documented in the southern Gulf of Mexico as far back as the 1700s and along Florida's Gulf coast in the 1840s. Fish kills near Tampa Bay were even mentioned in the records of Spanish explorers."

No one is claiming this is something new, or not a recurring part of the natural order of nature, but this year's is especially bad compared to any previous records. May be in Tampa things aren't so bad, but here in Charlotte county you cannot get near the beach between the overwhelming stench of dead sea life and the airborne toxins.  

http://myfwc.com/REDTIDESTATUS

For tons of fish and other sea life, the end has come! 

Cheers!!!