Not sure how much coverage the green algae and red tide get in the national news, but here in Florida it gets a lot of news coverage. Sometimes the coverage is a bit overdone for effect as the news channels tend to do with various topics. Leading in with “Red tide hits Southwest Florida. Big fish kill on Sanibel Island beaches, more after this message” then cutting back in with a zoom in on a single dead mullet on the beach. Now don’t get me wrong, the toxic green algae and red tide issues are a real thing, and the algae topic has reached a political level with the current Senate race here. Everyone is debating the causes and solutions available, but in the meantime, “There’s someting awfy fishey gowing on awound here” as Elmer Fudd might say.
Red tide is a condition where a specific type of algae (dinoflagellates) blooms in the water due to various causes and release toxins in the process. It occurs naturally and comes and goes around the Gulf Coast of Florida each year, but can be exacerbated by human causes like fertilizer runoff into rivers. Many say that the sugar plantations of Florida, which generate large revenues, but also produce a lot of fertilizer runoff, are generating the issue. The population growth in Florida and the draining of parts of the Everglades also seems to be a part as well. In any case, the water color and quality in the area around the island is being affected visually, and I expect that is also having an effect on the habitat and food chain.
Sometimes the red tide reaches a level that is mildly toxic to wildlife and sometimes it becomes so heavy that it can become toxic to even the largest of animals in the gulf like manatee. I have experienced red tide on Panama City Beach, and the air was heavy with the results of the algae and was barely breathable and hung in the air like smog in Los Angeles on a summer day. Since this is my first full summer here on the island, I cannot really make a judgement as to whether the red tide effects are normal, or out of the ordinary. However, I have yet to experience any of the serious breathing issues or really see any true red tide visual outbreaks here. We have had a reminder of the red tides that are around the area though, and that is definitely an unpleasant development.
Dead fish are floating in from other areas and ended up on the beaches here last week. One of the reasons I suspect they died somewhere else and drifted in on the tides and currents is that by the time they reached us, they were, um’ shall we say, ripe. I realize that dead fish in the Florida sun do not take very long to smell bad, but I mean they were decomposing. Strangely, it seemed like the catfish were the first and most affected of the fish. This is odd since they seem to be the hardiest types, surviving through conditions when most other fish do not. The puffer fish also seem to have been a high volume of those affected. Since the puffer fish use their sharp beak like mouth to destroy our plastic fishing lures, and seem to have a preference for the DOA Shrimp that is about $3.99 apiece, I have mixed feelings about seeing their bloated spiny carcasses in the sea grass.
In the meantime, Jason and I continue to fish and have caught some nice snook, batches of sea trout, mangrove snapper, sheepshead, and a few whiting. While it does seem there are times the fish are a bit scarce, there are other times when they are abundant and feeding. There are lots of bait fish around, so all in all, it seems the fish are good to go here on the island for now. Now the snook do not seem to be where they should be all the time, but it is hard to know how the shifting sands in the pass have changed their patterns from year to year. Jason says last year was down, and this year slower than a normal July. Who knows the cause? In the meantime, we will just fish on and enjoy the ride.
So this all seems depressing and not much fun. Well, death is part of life, and life is not always fun. Just ask my Goliath Grouper friend pictured on the top of this blog. Sometimes life stinks for a while and we just have to hold our breath and push through until the fresh air returns. In the meantime, if we stay home and decide not to fish because the conditions are not perfect and things are a bit smelly, we will certainly miss the adventures out there and we will not catch any fish while sitting on the couch. I think that probably applies to life as well. Sitting on the sidelines because we might get a bump or bruise on the field thinking things are just not perfect or we might encounter some discomfort, will result in no growth or maturity, and we will certainly miss the adventures where sometimes it just stinks.
David