Red Tide Status Report (August 6, 2021)

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 81 samples. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in 45 samples: seven from Pasco County, 11 from Pinellas County, two from Manatee County, 24 from Sarasota County, and one from Lee County. Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to high concentrations in and offshore of Pinellas County, background concentrations in Hillsborough County, background to medium concentrations in Manatee County, background to high concentrations in Sarasota County, background to low concentrations in Charlotte County, and background to medium concentrations in Lee County. For additional information, vier the Southwest Coast report and map.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background concentrations offshore of Hernando County, and background to medium concentrations in and offshore of Pasco County. For additional information, view the Northwest Coast report and map.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed. For additional information, view the East Coast report and map.

Fish kills suspected to be related to red tide were reported in Southwest Florida in
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, Charlotte, and Lee counties. Additional details are provided in the Southwest Coast report and 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 northern transport of coastal surface waters and minimal net movement of subsurface waters in most areas over the next 3.5 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/).

Additional tables and information will be available shortly here: (https://myfwc.com/research/redtide/statewide/).

The FWRI HAB group in conjunction with Mote Marine Laboratory now have a Facebook page.  Please come like our page and learn interesting facts concerning red tide and other harmful algal blooms in Florida at http://facebook.com/FLHABs.

The FWC 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: (https://myfwc.com/research/redtide/).

To learn more about various organisms that have been known to cause algal blooms in Florida waters, see our Flickr page at (https://www.flickr.com/photos/myfwc/collections/72157633096131866/).