Look at this massive “island” of dead fish floating off the St. Pete Pier on Friday morning. The city in Florida has been collecting tens of thousands of fish from the coast over the past 10 days and has cleaned up 9 TONS of dead fish due to red tide in just the last 24 hours alone.
Red tide has appeared in both Boca Ciega Bay and Tampa Bay, and may be a concern to those seeking to enjoy St. Pete’s waterfront and those who live in its proximity.
The massive red tide cleanup effort in St. Petersburg has entered its 10th day with more dead fish collected in the past 24 hours than in the last week.
City officials said the cleanup began after a wave of dead fish arrived near the coast days ago. They’ve been spotted in mangroves, near the shoreline, and out in the bay. Officials said Tropical Storm Elsa made it worse.
“We’ve collected 15 tons of fish in those 10 days and nine tons of those fish have been picked up in the last 24 hours,” said Amber Boulding, St. Pete’s emergency manager. “We’ve been dealing with red tide. Tropical Storm Elsa came and really exacerbated that issue and pushed even more fish in.”
Officials said 15 tons is equivalent to 25,000 fish. Nine tons is about 15,000 fish.
Boulding said the problem is widespread and the work is tedious, forcing the city to recruit more than 120 staff members from other departments besides public works to assist in the cleanup. They are also exploring options to bring in outside contractors to help.
Because multiple city workers are away from their day jobs, some other non-essential services have been delayed, such as mowing, tree trimming, and pothole repairs.
“We’re out there, we’re scraping and netting fish but the best way to let us know where those kills are and where the big piles of fish are is to let us know,” Boulding said.
The current red tide status in and around the St. Pete area can be found on the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission’s (FWC) Red Tide Status Map. Find a snapshot of the map below…
Most assume the problem is red tide, possibly exacerbated by Elsa. Red tide counts are high in St. Petersburg waters, but it’ll take additional testing from the FWC to determine Elsa’s impact.
“Right now it doesn’t look good out there, but that’s totally anecdotal, non-count scientific data,” offered Dr. Jim Ivey, an environmental science professor with USF St. Petersburg.
What is a Red Tide?
Red tide is a discoloration of a waterbody surface that occurs when colonies of algae grow out of control. Red tide blooms occur nearly every summer on Florida’s Gulf Coast and the most notable impacts are fish kills and unpleasant odors.
Fish kills are large groups of dead marine life which wind and tide conditions condense into a common area resulting in unpleasant odors along waterfronts or areas near impacted waterbodies. Additionally, red tide itself produces a distinguishable odor, burning eyes and nose or throat irritation in areas adjacent to or near waterbodies that are experiencing a bloom.
The City of St. Petersburg weekly tests local recreational waterbodies for the presence of specific bacteria. These results along with results from County red tide testing can be found here. []
Anyway, I would filter my water…
Now subscribe to this blog to get more amazing news curated just for you right in your inbox on a daily basis (here an example of our new newsletter).
You can also follow us on Facebook and/ or Twitter. And, by the way you can also make a donation through Paypal. Thank you!
You should really subscribe to QFiles. You will get very interesting information about strange events around the world.
Right next door, Cuba is having a massive revolt. Seems like the peons don’t like shortages of medicine and food.
Wherever communism is tried, it fails. It fails for many reasons. However, without the 2nd Ammendment there isn’t much you can do. Nonetheless people are revolting. In a short while the marxist gestapo will kill a bunch of protesters and that will be the end of it.
The 2nd Ammendment is the only thing keeping America from being absorbed into marxism, globalism, NWO. Pretty soon we will have a bloody war in our streets. Probably see commies hanging from lamp posts by 2022. Enjoy.
We don’t have a “Pier” anymore. We did. I learned to fish there but when the rich liberals moved fo town and our disgusting mayor took over, they demolished it and turned it into a place called “the eye”. Well here’s mud in your eye new people. We will all suffer plagues because of your iniquity. That’s great news if it gets rid of the new disease we have with them here.
You’re correct.
Democratic-marxists are a plague. Kennedy Democrats were at least sane. We used to go fishing and hunting with Kennedy Democrats back in the 1960s. I learned fishing from a pier too.
This new breed are irrational. They hate themselves, their country, and culture. They don’t debate the issues. Probably from being educated poorly, and indoctrinated by false History.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” That was the JFK type of mantra.
Nowadays, the lefties would rather think about themselves, and their selfish perversions first, and don’t even grasp what self sacrifice is all about.
You don’t want to fish in Tampa Bay.
Remember piney point a few months ago, when they dumped millions of gallons radioactive phosphate water right near where red tide is happening.
We’re out there, we’re scraping and netting fish but the best way to let us know where those kills are and where the big piles of fish are is to let us know.
Kinda hard to miss the smell, Einstein.
when the state rejects truth it will die! soon millions of humans will follow the fish examples! RIP america your officially over now! i have a good plan for new government! you cant fix evil, no, you kill evil!
America is here to stay. It’s the buttclown commies that need to worry.
You sound oikophobic.