Red Tide Mid-Week Update for August 11, 2021

Current Conditions

A bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists on the Florida Gulf Coast. Over the past week, K. brevis was detected in 67 samples. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in 35 samples: six from Pinellas County, five from Manatee County, and 24 from Sarasota County. Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, brevis was observed at background to high concentrations in and offshore of Pinellas County (in 21 samples), background to high concentrations in and offshore of Manatee County (in 10 samples), background to high concentrations in and offshore of Sarasota County (in 26 samples), background to low concentrations in Charlotte County (in four samples), and very low to low concentrations in Lee County (in four samples). Samples collected from or offshore of Collier and Monroe counties did not contain K. brevis.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, brevis was observed in background to very low concentrations in Pasco County (in two samples). Samples collected from or offshore of Escambia, Okaloosa, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, Levy, and Hernando counties did not contain K. brevis.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.

Fish Kills suspected to be related to red tide were reported in West Florida in Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte counties over the past week. For more details, please visit: https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/fish-kills-hotline/.

Respiratory Irritation suspected to be related to red tide was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. 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 net northwestern transport of coastal surface waters and net eastern transport of subsurface waters in most areas over the next 3.5 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, August 13th. 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.