The Red Tide Report

Current Conditions
A patchy 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. brevis was observed at very low concentrations in Sarasota County, background to medium concentrations in Charlotte County and in and/or offshore of Lee and Collier counties, and background concentrations offshore of Monroe County. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 K. brevis cells per liter) were observed in five samples from estuarine sites in Charlotte and Lee counties, and 6 samples from inlet, coastal, and offshore sites in Collier County.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background concentrations in one sample from Bay County.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.

In Southwest Florida over the past week, fish kill reports were received for Charlotte 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 Lee and Collier counties.

Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas to northern Monroe counties predict net northwestern movement of surface waters and minimal net transport of subsurface waters in most areas over the next four days.

The next status report will be issued on Friday, December 13^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.       

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.