Florida Red Tide Update: Toxic Tide Moves in on Tampa Bay, Killing Fish Masses

Florida's toxic red tide has now reached the Tampa Bay area, killing hundreds of thousands of fish in recent days and disturbing visitors to the beach. Massive fish kills were reported in Pinellas County, from Clearwater to St. Petersburg – a swatch covering 20 miles.

Pinellas County employees have worked this weekend to clear the dead fish.

The toxic red tide has plagued areas along the southwest Gulf Coast side of Florida's beaches for months, killing sea life and sickening residents and tourists, but Tampa Bay area had been largely spared. That changed this weekend, however, when toxic red tide moved in, killing hundreds of thousands of fish. Popular beaches in the Tampa Bay area including Madeira Beach, Redington Beach, and Treasure Island have been impacted, according to reports.

Pinellas County employees have been out working to clear the fish this weekend, including on Sunday along Redington Beach. The dead fish will be taken to the landfill and the cleanup is expected to last through next week due to the dead fish volume.

Also, many dead fish are still floating offshore. On Saturday evening, a boat "was circling the Intercoastal near Clearwater Pass, scooping hundreds of dead fish off the water's surface to prevent them from reaching the beach," tampabay.com reported.

More boats were scheduled to arrive Sunday.

"It's a huge community effort of all of us working together," said Kelli Levy, Pinellas' director of environmental management, according to tampabay.com. "We did a lot today getting logistics in place, tomorrow we'll have a lot more done, and on Monday and Tuesday, we will be in full operational mode."

Tampa Bay's toxic red tide fish kill comes days after some in the community were celebrating the news that recent Tropical Storm Gordon may have broken up the red tide along the southwest Florida coast.

"Persistent surface currents — prior to, during, and after the passage of Tropical Storm Gordon — likely played a role" in pushing parts of the bloom northwest, a report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Friday said.

Red tide was reportedly in high concentrations off Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties, and in lower concentrations off of Pinellas, Manatee, and Collier counties, according to the report. Yet this weekend, Tampa Bay got its first major experience with the toxic red tide when red tide that had lingered for weeks near Sarasota reached waters off Pinellas County.

A family visiting popular St. Pete beach this weekend arrived thinking they wouldn't find any red tide, but instead their six-year-old was "completely upset" and "having a meltdown" over red tide in the water, according to tampabay.com.

Red tide algae occur in the region naturally every year – some years it's much worse than others. This problem-causing bloom began in 2017. Scientists say it isn't expected to ease until the water temperature cools late this fall or winter – or a tropical storm or hurricane clears it out. That means months more of the red tide and algae bloom could plague southwest Florida, killing fish and sea turtles that wash ashore.

The FWC said in its report that fish kills and breathing issues in humans can occur when levels reach 10,000 cells per liter.

Initially, the bloom that began in October 2017 was mostly offshore, but it has moved closer to beaches in recent months. The toxic red tide has experienced a bigger bloom than normal this year, even though it is an annual occurrence.

Compounding the issue is that inland, Florida has also suffered from an outbreak of cyanobacteria in Lake Okeechobee "that spilled into rivers and canals carried the toxic green sludge east to the Atlantic Ocean and west to the Gulf of Mexico."