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While three so far have perished from the plantlike organism, a massive die-off seems unlikely.
By CRAIG PITTMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 11, 2001
ST. PETE BEACH -- The fall outbreak of Red Tide, which has killed thousands of fish from Charlotte County to the Pinellas beaches, has also claimed the lives of three manatees so far. Among the victims: two that were probably a mother and calf.
One survivor, a 600-pound juvenile, was found this week grounded on Longboat Key near Sarasota. Nicknamed Columbus, the 600-pound juvenile manatee is now recuperating at the Lowry Park Zoo.
The toxins in Red Tide can paralyze the marine mammals, leaving them in danger of drowning. But Columbus "was smart enough to find his way into shallow water," said zoo veterinarian David Murphy.
Every time Red Tide blooms off Florida's coast, biologists hold their breath, waiting for dead manatees to wash up. In 1996, Red Tide killed 149 manatees, the worst die-off of the endangered marine mammals ever recorded.
A Red Tide bloom developed several weeks ago in the Charlotte Harbor area south of Sarasota and slowly crept north toward Pinellas. Biologists hope to take water samples off Pinellas today to see if the bloom is continuing.
On Sept. 2, a male manatee killed by the Red Tide turned up in Lemon Bay off Englewood, said Tom Pitchford, a biologist with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg.
Then, on Sept. 16, the carcasses of two females -- one a nursing mother, the other the right size to be her calf -- washed up in Roberts Bay near Venice about a mile from each other, Pitchford said.
Pitchford said conditions do not appear to be sufficiently similar to 1996 to worry about another massive die-off. But more manatees may die before the Red Tide outbreak ends.
The cell that causes Red Tide has been detected in the waters off Pinellas County for about two weeks. Offshore winds kept the decomposing fish out in the Gulf until last week.
From Thursday through Sunday, St. Pete Beach officials had a crew of 15 people out every day picking up dead fish.By Wednesday the fish kills had tapered off, said St. Pete Beach community services director Mike Kenotek.
He said he had no estimate for how many dead fish the crews picked up. "They stink so bad we weren't in the mood to count them," he said.
Red Tide -- so named because it can turn the water a coppery color -- has been documented along Florida's coast since the 1530s. The tiny plant-like organism that causes it was not discovered until a massive bloom that covered beaches from Tarpon Springs to Marathon with 100 pounds of dead fish per foot in 1946-47.
Periodically, because of a combination of conditions not fully understood, the stingray-shaped cells multiply wildly, releasing paralyzing poisons into the water.
Scientists did not know the bloom also affected manatees until 1982, when at least 37 manatees died in Lee County during a Red Tide outbreak.