Red Tide Status Update for October 18, 2019

Current Conditions
The red tide organism, Karenia brevis, was observed at bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells per liter) at several sites in Southwest Florida over the past week. Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background concentrations in Sarasota County, background to medium concentrations in Lee County, and background to high concentrations in and/or offshore of Collier County. Bloom concentrations were observed in six samples each from Lee and Collier counties. High concentrations (>1 million K. brevis cells per liter) were observed in one Collier County sample only.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.

In Southwest Florida over the past week, several reports of fish kills were received for Lee and Collier counties (please see https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/fish-kills-hotline).

Respiratory irritation was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida, offshore of Charlotte County and in Lee and Collier counties.

Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas to northern Monroe counties predict net northern transport of surface and subsurface waters in most areas over the next four days.

A midweek status update will be available on Wednesday, October 23^rd and the next complete status report will be issued on Friday, October 25^th. Please check our daily sampling map, which can be accessed via the online status report on our Red Tide Current Status page.

This information, including maps and reports with additional details, is also available on the FWRI Red Tide website. The website also provides links to additional information related to the topic of Florida red tide including satellite imagery, experimental red tide forecasts, shellfish harvesting areas, the FWC Fish Kill Hotline, the Florida Poison Information Center (to report human health effects related to exposure to red tide), and other wildlife related hotlines.

To learn more about various organisms that have been known to cause algal blooms in Florida waters, see the FWRI Red Tide Flickr page. Archived status maps can also be found on Flickr.    

The FWRI HAB group in conjunction with Mote Marine Laboratory now have a facebook page.  Please like our page and learn interesting facts concerning red tide and other harmful algal blooms in Florida.