In the most recent sampling, the red tide organism was detected in 79 samples along Florida’s West Coast. I, for one, am going to the beach this weekend. So expect it to show up in, as officials say, “low-to-medium background concentrations offshore Lee County,” or wherever. Red tide organisms are endemic in the world’s oceans, which means it’s part of seawater. At that point, the back-to-back-to-back red tide blooms we’ve been living with will be no more. However, at some point the excess nutrients flushed in the coastal waters will be used up, diluted, and washed away. So enjoy it now.Ī week ago red tide was not found in any water quality testing south of Tampa Bay While hurricanes do not cause red tide, there is scientific evidence that those nutrients a storm washes into the ocean can make blooms last longer than if the food wasn’t available, but so little about red tide is 100-percent understood that I say let’s be thankful for this week. Since Hurricane Ian blew through in September and washed a whole bunch of nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen from the land into the water, we here in Southwest Florida have been dealing with one red tide after another.ĭo the clear results of water quality testing by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission mean red tide will not return? No.īut there is no reason to believe red tide blooms will return, either. If you don’t recognize it, that’s understandable, because it has been since last year that Southwest Florida wasn’t lit up like those red-yellow-green-“go” light stands at the start line of a drag-racing strip. In nearly real time it shows where testing for the red tide organism is positive. ![]() ![]() The red time blooms plaguing Southwest Florida’s beaches for five months are drifting away to the north. Hold onto your shorts, because I’ve got good news.
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