![]() ![]() Offshore upwelling out in the Gulf of Mexico brought the red tide organism to the surface and then currents and winds drove it nearshore.īut the real magic happened when the mass tonnage of nutrients from fertilizers, animal waste and flooded septic systems washed back into the coastal waters with the stormwater runoff from Ian and collided with the red tide organism nearshore. That acrid odor that wafts ashore with a strong red tide sent those without tolerance for noxious floating stimuli in their throats off the beach, back to their cars, and some to the hospital. Thousands of dead fish – big dead fish – littered the beaches, stank for a while, got cleaned up, then thousands more washed ashore. Both will adapt, however, and ever since Ian we’ve been dealing with one sort of stink or the other. The former prefers winters the latter prefer summers. Red tide prefers saltwater blue-green algae prefer freshwater. ![]() 28 last year helped foster a red tide-a-thon that lasted eight months. “We shouldn’t accept this given the health hazards, given the hazards to marine life, given what this can do to local economies, local communities. “We cannot allow it to be the new normal,” said Gil Smart, director of the clean-water nonprofit VoteWater based in Stuart. ![]() The fear is that this year’s blue-green algae outbreak will both rival the nastiness of the ones in 20 and signal that the harmful algae bloom will become an unwelcome summertime fixture in Southwest Florida. Each warning has been for an area further down the Caloosahatchee River, not as a river-full mass but as spotty mats that get caught in canals and stew, or move downriver with the flow. ![]()
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