Bird Board
Not really birding related- red tide at Crandon Park
Posted by Joseph Montes de Oca
over 6 years ago
3 Comments
I think it's called red tide. Most of the underwater fossilized reef rock was covered in the algae. There were still some black-bellied plovers around and also a great-blue heron and little-blue heron, some ibises, gulls etc so the birds didn't seem to mind too much. There were less fish than usual although maybe they were just harder to see in the red-tinged water. There was a lot of dead seagrass washed up on the shore (smelled awful). Don't ask me why I went snorkeling in there.... 8-)
Can anybody say how often this happens and how long it usually lasts? I haven't been to the fossilized reef in a while but it seemed pretty extensive there today.
Thanks,
Joe
Comments
http://myfwc.com/REDTIDESTATUS
Sanibel just had a red tide that persisted for a few weeks.
The FWC(see above) issues periodic reports of red tides and they have a number of products on their website that can give you updates, status reports and other information.
I do not know about citizen reporting, but you might wish to contact FWC and report what you've seen, in case they're missing it, or if it's something else.
Two summers ago there was an algae bloom that was reported by flats guides guides fairly south in Biscayne Bay, and covered by the Herald. I don't know whether that was considered a red tide.
Thanks, Joel. I reported it on the website since there isn't one that shows up on the red tide status page right now.
I think this is an example of the algae causing the ride tide (I'm not sure though): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13276258
Here are some of the organisms that I saw despite the red tide on the day I was there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&nelat=25.7293990383197&nelng=-80.13970858388348&on=2018-06-05&place_id=any&preferred_place_id=1&swlat=25.72408310401802&swlng=-80.15578991733491&user_id=joemdo
When I was stationed at Crandon the beach would close periodically but it was not due to algae. It was typically bacterial and the beach would open after a few days. I don't think I ever experienced a red tide in my 4 years there.
The area north of life guard tower #1 is part of the Bear Cut Preserve so there is no beach raking and the wrackline is allowed to break down naturally - not always the most pleasant smell haha.
Be careful snorkeling at the fossil reef, when I was there it was typically frowned upon when the general went into the area. Boaters and others using the sandbar were usually spoken to but little helped that situation.
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