Red Tide Status Update for June 11, 2021

Current Conditions
A patchy bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in Southwest Florida. Over the past week, K. brevis was detected in 71 samples, with bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) observed in 17 samples: six samples from Pinellas County, four samples from Hillsborough County, five samples from Manatee County, one sample from Lee County and one sample from Collier County. Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at very low to medium concentrations in and offshore of Pinellas County, background to medium concentrations in and offshore of Hillsborough County, background to medium concentrations in and offshore of Manatee County, background concentrations in and offshore of Sarasota County, low concentrations in Charlotte County, background to medium concentrations in Lee County, and background to medium concentrations in Collier County.
• 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, fish kills suspected to be related to red tide were reported in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Lee counties. For more details, please visit: https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/fish-kills-hotline/.

Respiratory irritation was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida in Pinellas County. Additional details are provided in the Southwest Coast report and for current information, please visit: https://visitbeaches.org/.

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

FWC-FWRI is working closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and other partners on the Piney Point response effort. Status updates and results are posted on the Protecting Florida Together website  (https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate) and on the Tampa Bay Estuary Program website (https://shiny.tbep.org/piney-point/).

The next complete status report will be issued on Friday, June 18^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.