Florida Red Tide

Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
During our brief visit to the Jensen Beach area we visited the ocean beach to take a swim. While I was arranging for chairs and an umbrella I let out a little hack. Just a little cough. The lady running the concession said that the hack was from the Red Tide. I was very skeptical since I'm looking out at what looks like clean blue/green water. I told her the water looks good to me and she said it doesn't matter. It's still there. I ask if it was OK to swim and she said she wouldn't. I was stunned. When we got set up on the beach I noticed that nearly everyone was hacking that little cough. It was hard to deny. Anyway, I went swimming and had a beautiful swim only marred by the fact that the slope of the beach wasn't conducive for body surfing. I showered after which isn't my normal practice. I had no ill effects on my skin or otherwise.
I've seen Red Tide. There was some at Mulligan's which is in Stuart and is on the Indian River. There were fish jumping all over the place including in it. I had no hacking there. The areas of that river that don't have red tide have brown water. I think that color is largely due to tannins in the water and not necessarily an indication of water quality - although most sources indicate St. Lucie River is suspect. When we were in Naples the harbor was red in color. We sat at Tin City and I had no hacking. My wife said she experienced respiratory symptoms - but she's a auto-immune mess and not the best indicator.
So for those of you on the front lines - what gives? Does it affect areas with otherwise clean looking water? Was the St. Lucie River ever blue/green with clean water? Will there be a solution or is this the new normal?
 
Nov 13, 2013
723
Catalina 34 Tacoma
I was at Siesta Key a couple years ago and was hacking while one the beach. Water color was not red but had a brownish tinge. Went swimming around Bonita Springs and came down with pneumonia after inhaling a little water.
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,759
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
The "leaders" of your state have done as little as possible to combat this because it would be related to science. As to cleaning up the mess, they didn't fund a cleanup, and did nothing about allowing it to get started in the first place. You have a chance to do something about it on Tuesday. Good luck.
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Not going to be the new norm but it probably will happen again every time a storm sits over the area and dumps gaboons of rain.. which washes agricultural fertilizer runoff and human sewerage out the rivers.. Here, we get a similar thing on Lake Pontchartrain when they have to open the big spillway upstream of New Orleans.. Same general problem the flood from a LOT of rain causing them to open the spillway which admits all the gunk that the Mississippi River is carrying.. Makes a real mess for a few months then everything gets better again.. HAs happened twice in the 44 years I have been poking around the lake.. That mess in FL will be gone in a month or so.. From what I remember of the news, it happens there about every 4-5 years or so..
 
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Sep 25, 2008
7,075
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
The "leaders" of your state have done as little as possible to combat this because it would be related to science. As to cleaning up the mess, they didn't fund a cleanup, and did nothing about allowing it to get started in the first place. You have a chance to do something about it on Tuesday. Good luck.
While the politicians like to blame each other and the other party, the reality is that this has happened virtually every year for the last two centuries and incidents of red tide have been reported historically since that last 1600s. Some years worse than others.
We all have opinions but implying an election will solve anything related to this is silly. Time to stop watching the TV.
 

capta

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Jun 4, 2009
4,766
Pearson 530 Admiralty Bay, Bequia SVG
While the politicians like to blame each other and the other party, the reality is that this has happened virtually every year for the last two centuries and incidents of red tide have been reported historically since that last 1600s. Some years worse than others.
We all have opinions but implying an election will solve anything related to this is silly. Time to stop watching the TV.
Most of the red tide in Fla is directly related to agricultural runoff from rain. If the people cared, they could those who would mandate less problematic fertilizers and soil conditioners. Obviously they don't.
Maybe one day people will.
 
Sep 30, 2013
3,538
1988 Catalina 22 North Florida
If the guy in power couldn't get the job done, then get a new guy. Ain't that the first rule of politics? Can't see continuing with the incompetents.
The guy in power is not running for re-election.
 
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SG

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Feb 11, 2017
1,670
J/Boat J/160 Annapolis

If the guy in power couldn't get the job done, then get a new guy. Ain't that the first rule of politics? Can't see continuing with the incompetents.
The guy in power is not running for re-election.


Scott is running for Senate? He's Term Limited?

Well, If you didn't like Scott on the environmental issues, then DeSantis isn't going to be much different an any protectionist way,
 
Oct 1, 2007
1,856
Boston Whaler Super Sport Pt. Judith
If the guy in power couldn't get the job done, then get a new guy. Ain't that the first rule of politics? Can't see continuing with the incompetents.
Having lived in New England and Florida I can unequivocally state that FL is a better governed state by far. However, that could definitely reverse if too many of the wrong people end up in key positions. Be very careful when you vote. Not all the incumbents are incompetent, and many of the challengers are already proven to be competent. Changing out good people in favor of incompetents is a losing strategy.
 
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Jan 1, 2006
7,039
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
Yeah, well I sorta guessed there would be some political responses - which is sorta OK. But doesn't really address my questions.
Head Sail has unfortunately corroborated the possibility that you can be adversely affected by the Red Tide when the water appears wholesome. That is bad news for me.
Don echos what I was told by folks at the Mote Marine Laboratory a few years ago while on a behind the scenes tour. It is a natural phenomenon that has been around for a long time. Basically we've made it worse but it's not possible to make it go away.
While we were in FL we heard a lot of political ads regarding the problem. We heard from other sources that it has been a result of the growth of Orlando and the theme parks. We heard it was the result of agricultural run off (Big Sugar.) We heard it was the result of diversion of water flow from North through the Everglades for agricultural and water needs for Orland. We heard there is a layer of sludge in Lake Okeechobee that feeds the rivers with nutrients which encourage blooms. And I wonder how the sewage treatment is in the heavily populated areas of Southern Florida.
I hope there is a solution or at least improvement. But I still would like to know If the St. Lucie River was ever Blue. Hose sound is brown. Ft. Lauderdale canals? Brown. Are these recent phenonmena, or has this been the situation for decades?
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
We have "Red Tides" up here too. No people to blame it on on most of the coast so it occurs naturally. It is the source of paralytic shell fish poisoning so be careful with it!
 

SG

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Feb 11, 2017
1,670
J/Boat J/160 Annapolis
The Florida Red Tid is much more widespread and the duration is scarier.
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,988
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Florida red tides are classified in science vernacular as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) along with other forms. There has been much state and federal dollars spent on research and potential mitigation of HABs nationwide. Over population and resultant “eutrophication” are likely not directly causative. As Don alluded, there are accounts from Conquistadors of severe red tides in the northern GOM dating to the 16th century.

In FL, the red tide is caused by an endemic toxic dinoflagellate that produces toxin which enters the air, causing respiratory “distress” when inhaled. I’ve experienced it many times while transiting the ICW at Longboat Pass.

Iron is a limiting trace nutrient for a blue-green alga that lives with the dinoflagellate. When Saharan dust blows over from Africa to the GOM, it carries and deposits iron. The iron stimulates the blue-green algae to fix nitrogen; i.e., it converts diatomic nitrogen into ammonium which the dinoflagellate absorbs easily; more easily than nitrate. A HAB follows a few days later. This goes on continuously, but where some dust clouds arriving are greater than others, etc. Arrival of dust clouds has been seen and documented via satellite imagery.

Florida elections won’t solve this problem any more than they can stop thunderstorms from occurring. Science can’t solve this problem either; only explain it.
 
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SG

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Feb 11, 2017
1,670
J/Boat J/160 Annapolis
Florida elections won’t solve this problem any more than they can stop thunderstorms from occurring. Science can’t solve this problem either; only explain it.

That was interesting, Kings Gambit.

I guess then we'll see if for Florida's Gov Scott it was a modern version of the Biblical Ten Plagues - Plague 1
"Water turned to blood".?

The cause of these doesn't appear to be quite so "cut and dried"
The quote below is from a piece in the London Telegraph. The whole article is interesting, but for brevity (or an approximation of it) I only pulled the item below:
[Whole article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sc...-plagues-really-happened-say-scientists.html]

'The scientists believe this switch in the climate was the trigger for the first of the plagues.

The rising temperatures could have caused the river Nile to dry up, turning the fast flowing river that was Egypt's lifeline into a slow moving and muddy watercourse.

These conditions would have been perfect for the arrival of the first plague, which in the Bible is described as the Nile turning to blood.

Dr Stephan Pflugmacher, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, believes this description could have been the result of a toxic fresh water algae.

He said the bacterium, known as Burgundy Blood algae or Oscillatoria rubescens, is known to have existed 3,000 years ago and still causes similar effects today.

He said: "It multiplies massively in slow-moving warm waters with high levels of nutrition. And as it dies, it stains the water red."

The scientists also claim the arrival of this algae set in motion the events that led to the second, third and forth plagues – frogs, lice and flies.

Frogs development from tadpoles into fully formed adults is governed by hormones that can speed up their development in times of stress.

The arrival of the toxic algae would have triggered such a transformation and forced the frogs to leave the water where they lived.

But as the frogs died, it would have meant that mosquitoes, flies and other insects would have flourished without the predators to keep their numbers under control. ....
 
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Dec 19, 2006
5,809
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
I was just out down to KW and back and saw no Red Tide and my other boating
friends saw no Red Tide.
Nick