After one last, hard smack at Fort DeSoto and Shell Key over the Thanksgiving holiday, Red Tide has disappeared from Pinellas County’s beaches.
“We’re shutting down” said Kelli Hammer Levy, the county’s environmental management director, Tuesday morning, referring to the county’s ongoing cleanup efforts. “The bloom is now south of us.”
South of Pinellas, the bloom is still causing dire effects. The Naples Daily News reported on Monday that 22 dead dolphins had washed ashore in Lee and Collier counties since the previous Wednesday, with Red Tide’s toxins suspected as the cause of death.
The toxic algae bloom, which scientists have described as the worst in a decade, has been lingering off the state’s gulf coast for a year. Red Tide algae floats in the Gulf of Mexico all year round. No one knows what starts a bloom, when the algae suddenly multiply rapidly and begin killing fish, dolphins, sea turtles and manatees by the score.
But once a bloom moves inshore, it can be fueled by pollution in stormwater runoff, leaky sewer systems and septic tanks. Scientists said this year’s bloom also appeared to be boosted by dust blown into the gulf from the Sahara Desert and pollution in the runoff from the Mississippi River.
A climate change report four years ago predicted Florida would be plagued by more and more intense Red Tide blooms.
Pinellas suffered from the toxic algae bloom’s effects for three months, starting in early September. According to Levy, the county spent more than $7 million trying to clean up all the dead fish washing ashore, in some cases intercepting them before they could reach the beach.
Levy said contractors hired by the county collected a total of 1,863 tons of dead sea life and hauled it off to the county’s landfill and incinerator.
Right before Thanksgiving, the bloom was sitting in Bunce’s Pass, she said, and dumping lots of dead fish on Fort De Soto and Sand Key.
“Fort De Soto was getting hit hard,” she said.
But then strong winds from the north began pushing the bloom south, and southward flowing currents moved it along as well.
The same winds and currents could shift, though, and bring it all back.
She promised the county would continue monitoring the beaches three days a week “but right now all things are looking good.”
Contact Craig Pittman at [email protected] or . Follow @craigtimes.