Has anyone heard about the red tide devastating swfl coast lines? If you guys see this post please post about it on your Instagram pages, Facebook pages, or any form of social media. I just really need this issue to go viral so something has to be done!
Below are articles explaining the cause of this red tide and what exactly it is.
ARTICLE 1
"Okay... who crapped in the pool?
Seriously, this is a National Disaster playing out right before our eyes... America Wake Up!!!
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is dumping Lake Okeechobee early in the hurricane season for flood protection. Unfortunately the Lake is full of massive agricultural pollution...predominately from Big Sugar.
The nutrients from wasteful over fertilizing results in significant illegal waste discharges causing toxic algal blooms. The result is destruction of the ecosystem, poisoned drinking water sources and DEATH.
Ignorance, apathy and complacency allow our elected representatives to turn a blind eye to the death and destruction.
A plague upon all with the power to put an end to this ..."
ARTICLE 2
"When dozens of goliath grouper started washing up on Boca Grande’s beaches, longtime charter captain Chris O’Neill says he took it personally.
The Port Charlotte resident has been working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to tag more than 500 of the giant fish in Charlotte Harbor over the past 10 years.
O’Neill, 51, did two short Facebook videos featuring closeups of dead grouper, snook, tarpon and the carcass of a decomposing manatee, all casualties of a strong red tide bloom off the coast of Charlotte, Lee and southern Sarasota counties.
“I was out looking around to see how bad the damage was, and we found over 40 goliath grouper lying just on Boca Grande beach alone,” he said in a recent phone interview. “That pretty much encompasses the entire population of Charlotte Harbor, the same ones we’ve been protecting for so long.”
The retired Army captain has run Tail Chaser Charter Services since 2007, but this noxious red tide bloom has idled him and other captains.
“I haven’t worked for two weeks,” O’Neill said. “The entire industry is pretty much shut down.”
His videos issued a call to action for average citizens, and to hold state officials accountable for the Lake Okeechobee discharges that have fouled the Caloosahatchee and St. John’s rivers, which are unrelated to the red tide. He figured an election year might be a good time to push for change.
Recently, reports of a wave of green algae slime oozing down the Caloosahatchee River toward the Gulf of Mexico has prompted a backlash. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on Thursday that it would stop Lake O releases to the east coast for nine days, to allow time for tides to flush the algae. But the lake dumping will likely resume when the summer rains push water levels higher.
“Something’s out here causing harm to this water,” O’Neill said in one Facebook video shot from the bow of his boat while a dead manatee floated in the water by his feet. “We need your help to get this fixed.”
O’Neill estimates that he also spotted about 2,000 dead snook, many of them 30 to 40 inches long that were getting ready to spawn. He’s tired of locals shrugging and calling it a natural phenomenon, when the blooms seem to get worse every year.
“I’ve got beaten up for years for bringing it up on Facebook. People say, hey, you’re messing my business up,” O’Neill said. “Your business is going to hurt long term. And now look where we’re at. We’re in a real quagmire. We’re in trouble, like real trouble.”
O’Neill would like to see Florida declare a state of emergency and come up with a plan to stop the Lake O discharges, which are done during the rainy season to ease the threat of a dike breach. Already, his video is having a grassroots impact: The Facebook group Save Our Florida Fisheries shared word of a rally hosted by West Wall Outfitters planned for July 14 at Laishley Park in Punta Gorda.
“I just want to go back to work and make a future here for not only my family but others because right now we’re at a dead-end road. Our future looks bleak along the coastline,” O’Neill said.
“The days of hearing somebody say, ‘Oh this has always happened here, this is the way it is.’ No, that’s B.S. because every time it’s happened, it’s worse, it’s longer and it’s just disgusting. Now we’re killing larger animals in big numbers. Those fish are anywhere from 15 to 25 years old. How long does it take for that to recover?”
ARTICLE 3
At a Glance
The red tide that began in October has left a trail of dead marine animals in waters along Southwest Florida's beaches.
The red tide has resulted in respiratory illnesses in the area.
An algal bloom along Florida's southwestern coast has*killed marine life, including turtles, manatees and fish, local officials say.
Fishing guide Chris O'Neill told the Fort Myers News-Press the red tide that began in October*has left a trail of dead marine animals*in waters all along Southwest Florida's beaches.
"It’s pretty bad, and it smells like massive death," O'Neill told the newspaper. "I saw a manatee and a sea turtle and six tarpon*dead in one small body of water. I only had to look for a couple of hours. It wasn’t hard to find.*I could see about six Goliaths laying on the beach at Boca Grande."
The bloom originated in waters off Lee County*near Fort Myers but has expanded to include waters just south of*Tampa Bay*to the Collier-Monroe border, the Florida Fish and Wildlife*Conservation Commission reported.
Over the past week, FWC reported fish kills in Boca Grande Pass, Gasparilla Island and North Captiva Pass in Lee County*and at Big Marco Pass, Caxambas Pass and South Marco Island in Collier County, among other locations.
The red tide has also resulted in respiratory illnesses in humans.
"There was heavy respiratory irritation and fish kills in the Boca Grande area," Hayley Rutger of the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota told the News-Press. "A number of areas in Southwest Florida are forecast to get respiratory irritation. Lee has anywhere from low to high, depending*on where you are."
Algal*blooms of cyanobacteria*originate from*runoff containing human waste and fertilizers from nearby farms and ordinary neighborhoods, according to the FWC.*Nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as other nutrients in the polluted runoff, can act like fertilizer for the algae, creating large and long-lasting blooms.
If ingested, water contaminated with toxic cyanobacteria can cause nausea, vomiting and, in severe cases, acute liver failure, the FWC also said.
The Centers for Disease Control says*coming in direct contact with the algae*can result in a rash. Some research indicates a link between long-term inhalation of toxic algae fumes and neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s diseases.
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Originally Posted by MerFantasy
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