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Tests show Red Tide off Pinellas shore
By ALICIA CALDWELL
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- The organism that causes Red Tide has been found in low concentrations in the waters off Pinellas County, but projected winds could keep the fish-killing algae bloom off shore. Samples taken Tuesday from areas near the Sunshine Skyway bridge, Fort De Soto and Egmont channel contained low levels of the Red Tide organism, said Earnest Truby, a research scientist with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg. "It's in Pinellas County," Truby said. "We've got easterly winds now, so we probably won't see a lot of effects of it." No fish kills have been reported in Pinellas, Truby said, though researchers who ventured 5 miles out to sea to take offshore samples saw masses of decomposing fish -- presumably from the bloom off Manatee and Sarasota counties. On Wednesday, the National Weather Service was forecasting winds out of the east for the rest of the week, which would help keep Red Tide offshore. However, the developing tropical depression strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico is a wild card in the equation. "I have no idea how that would affect Red Tide," Truby said. Robert Weisberg, a University of South Florida professor of oceanography, said projected currents also would push the bloom out to the gulf. And storm projections as of Wednesday afternoon also would have the bloom moving offshore. But, he said, those could change. In St. Pete Beach, the southernmost of Pinellas' beach communities, city authorities were ready to send scrapers, front-end loaders and beach cleaners to the shoreline if necessary. "We would mobilize our public works people depending upon the severity of the fish kill," said Christopher Brimo, acting city manager. A Red Tide bloom that developed several weeks ago in the Charlotte Harbor area near Fort Myers has crept north, leaving a swath of dead fish in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The single-cell organism can cause respiratory irritation in people -- particularly those prone to asthma and emphysema. It kills fish and in high enough concentrations turns seawater the color of ice tea.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
