![]() ![]() Some fish have to be picked up by hand, and crews must quickly remove rotting fish or else the nitrogen-hungry algae will only continue to feed on their nutrients, Burke said. "The fact that it's been three years since the last one is not good."Ĭleanup efforts are ongoing, with no end in sight. But intense blooms are rarely seen in the summer in the Tampa Bay area, according to Richard Stumpf, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.īlooms typically begin in the fall and go away by January, but summer blooms in the area have occurred a handful of times in more recent history: 1995, 2005 and, most recently, 2018. The microscopic algae that create red tides, known as Karenia brevis, are naturally found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Algal blooms are natural - the timing and severity are not The worst of it is being seen now in nearby St. Science It's Summer, And That Means The Mysterious Return Of Glacier Ice Wormsįish have been washing up on the bay's shore since early June, floating in from massive clumps out at sea where they first collected at the site of blooms, called "fish kills." Possibly because of strong winds created by Tropical Storm Elsa, fish have been piling on shores in much larger and smellier quantities. But Burke, who serves as the assistant director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, and ocean scientists agree: A bloom of this intensity shouldn't be happening in Tampa Bay right now. To fish and other sea animals, they can be deadly. ![]() Exposure to blooms can cause respiratory irritation in humans. The hordes of fish were killed by a red tide, a large "bloom" of toxic algae that appears on Florida's Gulf Coast about once a year. If it's swimming in the bay, right now it's washing up dead." "It's significant numbers of dead fish all up and down the food chain, from small forage fish all the way up to tarpon, manatees, dolphins. "The bay is really hurting right now," she said. Maya Burke, a lifetime resident of Pinellas County, knows the sights - and smells - at this time of year are anything but normal. Discolored, soupy waters have been lapping the shore, and the beaches are laden with dead, rotting sea life. Petersburg, Florida.įor beachgoers in the Tampa Bay area, the last few weeks have been anything but normal. Dead fish and eels killed by a red tide in the Tampa Bay area collect in St. ![]()
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