Red Tide At Night . . . No One’s Delight October 11, 2016
Posted by nrhatch in Humor, Less IS More, Nature.trackback
Before moving to Florida, I’d never heard of Red Tide. Well, let me tell you, Red Tide STINKS!
Red Tide is an algae-bloom that starts far off shore and moves with the tides, killing fish in its wake. The dead fish wash up on the beach in droves and do what dead fish are wont to do ~> emit foul odors.
At the end of September, a significant Red Tide bloom made its appearance known to us on our morning beach walk.
P.U.
We held our breath and made a mad dash for the car.
A few days later, we decided to chance another walk on the beach.
We didn’t bump into any dead fish (they’d been raked up and dumped into a dumpster), but it smelled “fishy” down at water’s edge. So we walked up near the dunes instead.
Maybe they better add “NO Red Tide” and “NO Dead Fish” to the list of beach and pier prohibitions!
Aah . . . that’s better!
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Spirit Lights The Way 
PU indeed! That stuff is nasty…beautiful sky though.
It’s been a month and it’s still hanging around . . . the beach is walk-able if the wind flows from land to sea, not vice versa.
Sounds like it goes away quickly.
I checked with Mote Marine Lab ~ it can lasts from weeks to months to a year! It all depends on . . . stuff they don’t yet understand.
Wow! That’s not quick at all. Was it that they cleaned your beach to get rid of dead sealife? Is it still out there?
It is still there, and we did see a few dead fish on the beach today during our walk, but the water is regaining its turquoise hue which means that the concentration of algae is lessening.
YAY!
I wonder if you can produce a delicacy from those fish.
Sure . . . with a side of toxic algae!
Didn’t know about that. Very interesting Nancy.
This is the first time we’ve had personal experience with Red Tide since we moved to Florida in 2008. Previous blooms weren’t as “intense” and didn’t last long. They quickly dissipated. This batch is sticking around.
Something must have rolled out the “WELCOME” mat.
Oh no! We came across little neon spots (flashes in the dark) along the shore of a river this past week, and we thought they were some sort of algae blooms. We shined a light on them and they were what looked like roly polys, all curled up, not sure if it’s the underside or shell that illuminates. I suppose I could look it up but haven’t bothered yet.
Cool find, Suzi . . . I love the idea of roly polys giving off Neon Lights.
I had never heard of Red Tide until your comment a few days ago, and I looked it up. Ugh.
It’s noxious and obnoxious! The water is looking more turquoise again . . . so here’s hoping the bloom is fading.
Does the water literally turn a reddish colour?
It looks brown-ish . . . much darker than its normal aqua hues.
I had a quick look on Wikipedia to find out more about red tides. It sounds like an awful problem in various parts of the world. It kills many manatees every year, apparently (as if they didn’t have enough problems) and can make people seriously ill if they eat seafood contaminated by it. With all that plus the terrible smell, I’m not surprised you hate it.
I don’t eat much seafood these days, but if I did, here’s the conversation I’d have at the restaurant:
“Excuse me, waiter . . . is the grouper caught locally?”
“Yes, sir. Straight off the boat this morning.”
“In that case, I’ll have the Greek Salad.”
Haha! Yes, that sounds very wise.
And, yet, people are still out fishing . . . go figure!
Although not too common, we’ve had some of these odd algae blooms before and they are really nasty! I wonder as the oceans warm if we’ll have more algae imbalances. Yuck!
We may ~> warmer temps, rising tides, and more dead fish! What a legacy we’ll leave.
All too familiar with Red Tide. Hope it clears up for you soon!
It’s on the wane, but still lingering about in pockets. We went for an afternoon beach walk yesterday and even with the wind coming off the water, the odor was mild enough that we could do the full 2 miles.
It should be long gone before you and CH head down.
I’d heard of this before, but didn’t really know what it meant. Living inland, I miss this sort of thing. Ugh!!! Sounds horrible.
Here we used to have the alewives washing up by Lake Michigan. But their population has decreased.
The last BIG outbreak around here was in 2006 . . . two years before we moved here. So this is the first bit of the nasty business we’ve had to deal with. It’s dissipating. YAY!
I had to google “alewives and Lake Michigan” . . . sounds like a similar stinky situation.
I guess all those dead fish decreased the population over time.
It really stinks! We have only experienced it once here, about 8 years ago…and I hope they will add to the list 🙂
It’s clearing up around here . . . but De Soto reported some yesterday:
http://visitbeaches.org/
Never heard of it until I read it here. From the title, I thought it was something beautiful. Oh well…
It’s getting better every day ~ YAY!