Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it has detected the red tide organism Karenia brevis in the water samples taken for analysis from the coasts of Pasco, Okaloosa, Hernando and Pinellas counties.
Pasco and Hernando counties, in particular, were found with background to medium concentrations of the organism. Okaloosa has background concentrations in its collected sample, while Pinellas was found to have background to low concentrations of the red tide organism.
The University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory revealed satellite images that display an irregular bloom roughly 80 miles or 130 kilometers in length and maximum of 50 miles or 80 kilometers in width, about 40 to 90 miles offshore between southern Pasco and Dixie counties in the northwest portion of Florida.
For regions that are off the shore of Pinellas, satellite images were not available yet, but a sampling confirmed the presence of K. brevis at a distance of 33 miles west Caledesi Island and 13 miles west Madeira Beach, which are both off the shores of Pinellas. Meanwhile, the other samples collected this week throughout Florida were not found to have K. brevis.
The red tide bloom resulted to an ongoing fish kill northeast Gulf of Mexico, FWC officials confirmed. Its Fish Kill hotline, in fact, received reports of thousands of fish deaths and reef fish decline, which include grouper species, snappers, filefish, sea snakes, hogfish, crabs, flounder, grunts, bull sharks, lionfish, baitfish, eel, tomtates, octopus, lizardfish and triggerfish.
Incidences of water discoloration were reported as well. Respiratory inflation was also reported off the shore in the bloom patch, leading to wheezing and coughing of those persons exposed to the toxins brought by red tide.
Researchers said on Thursday that it may pose much greater threat if red tide gets washed ashore as estimated in the coming two weeks.
"It could have large impacts if it were to move inshore," FWC spokesman Brandon Basino said. "It has been killing a lot of marine species, especially fish, as it waits offshore."
In 2006, the Gulf of Mexico saw the last biggest bloom in red tide cases that killed thousands of fish. Research says red tide happens when algae that naturally occurs blooms uncontrollably, thereby producing deadly toxins to fish and other marine life.
FWC reports on red tide in Florida are updated every Friday afternoon, excluding holidays, wherein it will be released on the closest day. If there’s additional information, the agency releases it on Wednesday afternoon.
