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Experts: Red Tide out there, but not bad

The algae is about 1 to 3 miles from the shore, and some marine animals have died because of it, but the outbreak is still better than it was before.

By JEAN HELLER
Published September 18, 2006

ST. PETE BEACH — The sun beat down on the golden sand and the fresh breeze carried the aroma of saltwater and fish.

Fresh fish, too, not the acrid, sickening smell of rotting fish and Red Tide algae blooms that swept Pinellas County beaches most of last year.

The experts say Red Tide is out there, off shore about 1 to 3 miles. But just as hurricane season is turning out to be unexpectedly average, the Tampa Bay region getting something of a break from Red Tide.

“Red Tide is always out there in patchy patterns. The question every year is how close will it come to shore and start affecting people,” said Nadine Slimak, a spokeswoman for Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

The state Fish and Wildlife Research Institute says Red Tide blooms extend from just south of Tarpon Springs to Fort Myers in a wide variety of concentrations from high to extremely low. The highest concentrations off Pinellas were offshore of Clearwater and Indian Rocks Beach.

While there are no reports of massive fish kills so far this year, a significant collection of dead fish appeared along the southern tip of Pass-a-Grille Monday.

“That probably was Red Tide related,” said Cindy Heil, a senior research scientist with the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

“It’s nowhere as severe this year as it was last,” Heil said. “Last year, Red Tide started in January and lasted most of the year. That’s why so many manatees died. They were still in the warmer rivers and close to shore for the winter and got caught. This year, it didn’t start until June.”

Last year at this time, she said, Red Tide stretched from Naples north to the Florida Panhandle. This year the readings are spotty from Fort Myers to Tarpon.

“We don’t have a year as bad as last year more than once every decade or two,” Heil said.
As Red Tide outbreaks go, she said, 2006 would be “fairly normal to maybe a little on the high side of normal — nothing to compare to 2005.”

There was nothing about the beach experience Monday that bothered Hazel and Edward Wells of London, who wandered off the Pass-a-Grille beach to their rental car at midafternoon with sunburned skin and happy smiles.

“Smashing day,” Edward said. “Nothing at all bad to say about it. We even remarked this morning how wonderful the air smelled.”

“Red Tide?” Hazel said with a grin. “Sounds like the title of a bad Cold War movie, doesn’t it? I never heard of it, but if it’s a nasty thing, it wasn’t out there to bother anybody today.”

[Last modified September 18, 2006, 22:03:52]