Red Tide Status Update for December 6, 2019

Current Conditions
A patchy bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in some areas of Southwest Florida. Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background and very low concentrations in Sarasota County, and background to medium concentrations in Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 K. brevis cells per liter) were observed in 7 samples from estuarine sites in Charlotte and Lee counties, and 3 samples from coastal or inlet sites in Collier County. High concentrations (>1 million K. brevis cells per liter) were not observed over the past week.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background concentrations in one sample collected from Bay County.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.

In Southwest Florida over the past week, fish kill reports were received for Charlotte, 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 in Sarasota, Lee, and Collier counties. Additional details are provided in the Southwest Coast report.

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

A midweek status update will be issued on Wednesday, December 11^th and the next complete status report will be issued on Friday, December 13^th. Please check our daily sampling map, which can be accessed via the online status report on our Red Tide Current Status page. For more information on algal blooms and water quality, please visit Protecting Florida Together.

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.