FWC Red Tide Status Update for August 13, 2021

Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC

Current Conditions A patchy bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists on the Florida Gulf Coast. Over the past week, K. brevis was detected in 64 samples. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in 34 samples: one offshore of Hillsborough County, five from Manatee County, 26 from Sarasota County, one from Charlotte County, and one offshore of Lee County. Additional details are provided below.

In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to low concentrations in and offshore of Pinellas County, background to medium concentrations offshore of Hillsborough County, background to high concentrations in Manatee County, low to high concentrations in Sarasota County, low to medium concentrations in Charlotte County, and very low to medium concentrations in and offshore of Lee County. For additional information, view the Southwest Coast report and map.
In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to very low concentrations in Pasco County. For additional information, view the Northwest Coast report and map.
Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to very low concentrations in Duval County. For additional information, view the East Coast report and map.

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

Respiratory irritation suspected to be related to red tide was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. For recent and current information at individual beaches, please visit https://visitbeaches.org/ and for forecasts that use FWC and partner data, please visit https://habforecast.gcoos.org/.

Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas to northern Monroe counties predict counties predict western and then northern transport of coastal surface waters and net eastern movement of subsurface waters over the next four days.

A midweek status update will be available on Wednesday, August 18^th and the next complete status report will be issued on Friday, August 20^th. Please check our daily sampling map, which can be accessed via the online status report on our Red Tide Current Status page. For more information on algal blooms and water quality, please visit Protecting Florida Together.

This information, including maps and reports with additional details, is also available on the FWRI Red Tide website. The website also provides links to additional information related to the topic of Florida red tide including satellite imagery, experimental red tide forecasts, shellfish harvesting areas, the FWC Fish Kill Hotline, the Florida Poison Information Center (to report human health effects related to exposure to red tide), and other wildlife related hotlines.

To learn more about various organisms that have been known to cause algal blooms in Florida waters, see the FWRI Red Tide Flickr page. Archived status maps can also be found on Flickr.