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Beaches catch big whiff of Red Tide
By AMY WIMMER ST. PETE BEACH -- Jean Harper might never eat seafood again. She spent five hours Wednesday on the front lines of the reeking, throat-wrenching war on Red Tide, netting hundreds of bloated and rotting fish from the canal behind her home. They filled about 20 jumbo-sized lawn bags. "At first I wasn't going to do it, and I thought, "The boat parade's this Sunday. I wanted to have some company and go outside,' " said Harper, 49, who lives on a canal off the Boca Ciega Bay in St. Pete Beach. "You couldn't eat at home or go outside. I just said, "Hey, either I get them up or they're going to be here until next year.' " The worst Red Tide outbreak in seven years has spilled into the bay that separates the beaches from the mainland, turning backyard docks and seawalls into stinky depositories for fish that succumbed to the deadly algae. The bloom of microscopic, single-celled algae has formed what one scientist called an amorphous "blob," extending more than 100 miles from the north Pinellas County beaches to Charlotte County, and up to 30 miles offshore. The toxic algae deplete oxygen levels in the water; their emissions paralyze fish, preventing them from breathing. Outbreaks can also cause cold-like symptoms or respiratory problems in people, and two people in Charlotte County have reportedly gotten sick from eating oysters they harvested from Red Tide-infested waters. "For some reason, it's just hanging in there this year; and it seems to be independent of what the local winds are doing," said Robert Weisberg, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida. Many beach residents are closing their windows and turning on air conditioners. Others have stopped dining outside. City officials in St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, overwhelmed by requests for help with fish cleanup, have urged residents to take care of their own properties. "This is a job where you've got to stay upwind," St. Pete Beach public works employee Don Phipps said as he picked up fish behind Island's End Resort in St. Pete Beach, where even a 20-pound grouper turned up dead Thursday morning. Water samples analyzed Thursday revealed low or very low levels of Red Tide in the waters off the Pinellas beaches. But authorities are not predicting whether the bloom is dissipating. "I hate to admit it, but we really know very little about Red Tide," Weisberg said. "We've learned an awful lot, but this is a funny critter." The stuff is unpredictable. It appeared last weekend that the bloom was abating, but it continues to linger. Red Tide is undiscriminating. The wind and tides might dump hundreds of fish at the back door of one neighbor, as they did for Janet Peterson of Treasure Island, who collected 21 bags of them last week from the water behind her home. "I'm never sticking my toes in that water again," she said afterward." Or the tide will push a few dead catfish and grouper into the bay on high tide, then carry them out again on its way out. At the Wharf restaurant in Pass-a-Grille, where open windows are a staple year-round, patrons are still requesting outdoor tables. Matt Loder, a co-owner of the Crabby Bill's seafood restaurants, said his restaurants have been relocating some patrons to indoor seats because the Red Tide irritates their eyes. He also said some customers are worried about eating fish, even though shellfish harvesting in Red Tide-affected areas has been banned for weeks. Scientists hope one day to have a model that predicts Red Tide outbreaks just as meteorologists predict the weather. "I'm hoping that in the not-too-distant future, we'll understand this better," Weisberg said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
