FWC RED TIDE REPORT (NOVEMBER 22, 2019)
VIEW MAP OF FLORIDA COUNTIES BY CLICKING ON "READ MORE" BELOW.
Current Conditions
A bloom of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, persists in Southwest Florida. Additional details are provided below.
- In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. breviswas observed at very low concentrations in Pinellas County, background to medium concentrations in Sarasota County, low to high concentrations in Charlotte County, very low to high concentrations in and/or offshore of Lee County, and very low to high concentrations in Collier County. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 K. brevis cells per liter) persist in Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties. These include coastal sites in Sarasota County, coastal, inlet, and estuarine sites in Charlotte and Lee counties, a site sampled 10 miles offshore of Lee County, and coastal sites in Collier County. High concentrations (>1 million cells per liter) were observed in 27 samples from Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties.
- In Northwest Floridaover the past week, K. brevis was observed at background concentrations in one sample collected from Bay County.
- Along the Florida East Coastover the past week, K. brevis was not observed.
In Southwest Florida over the past week, fish kill reports were received for Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties (please see https://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/health/fish-kills-hotline).
Respiratory irritation was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida in Sarasota, Lee and Collier counties.
Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas to northern Monroe counties predict variable movement of surface waters and net southern transport of subsurface waters in most areas over the next four days.
Due to the holiday next week, a complete status report will be issued on Wednesday, November 27th. Please check our daily sampling map, which can be accessed via the online status report on our Red Tide Current Status page.
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.
The FWRI HAB group in conjunction with Mote Marine Laboratory now have a facebook page. Please like our page and learn interesting facts concerning red tide and other harmful algal blooms in Florida.
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