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#Sarasota County:  Mid-week #Redtide update  

Posted on by fabbruzzino

 

 

 

#Sarasota County:  Mid-week #Redtide update

Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC

 

 

Current Conditions
The red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in Southwest Florida. Over the past week, K. brevis was detected in 58 samples. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in one sample from Sarasota County, eight samples from Charlotte County, and one sample from Collier County. K. brevis was also observed at background concentrations in one sample from the Florida East Coast. Additional details are provided below.

  • In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to low concentrations in Manatee County (in nine samples), background to medium concentrations in Sarasota County (in 24 samples), background to high concentrations in Charlotte County (in 11 samples), very low to low concentrations in Lee County (in five samples), and background to medium concentrations in and offshore of Collier County (in eight samples). Samples from Pinellas and Hillsborough counties did not contain red tide.
  • Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.
  • Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background concentrations in Volusia County.

 

In Southwest Florida over the past week, fish kills suspected to be related to red tide were reported in Sarasota and Charlotte counties. For more details, please visit: https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/fish-kills-hotline/.

 

Respiratory irritation was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida in Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte counties. For current information, please visit: https://visitbeaches.org/.

 

Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas to northern Monroe counties predict net northwestern transport of surface waters and minimal net movement of subsurface waters in most areas over the next four days.

 

FWC-FWRI is working closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and other partners on the Piney Point response effort. Status updates and results are posted on the Protecting Florida Together website (https://protectingfloridatogether.gov/PineyPointUpdate) and on the Tampa Bay Estuary Program website (https://shiny.tbep.org/piney-point/).

 

The next complete status report will be issued on Friday, April 30th.