Is There Red Tide in South Walton, Florida on 30A Beaches?

Maybe this might give you an idea of the magnitude of the cuts in water monitoring that happened because of Rick Scott.

I asked because I guessed correctly that you are confusing the green algae coming from Lake Okeechobee from Red Tide that forms in the ocean. It's like confusing an allegation with evidence.

“The hopeful one is that strong winds from the hurricane blow red tide offshore,” says Hastings.

But if Tropical Storm Michael turns into a rain maker, it could be bad news .

“The heavy rain will dilute farm and agriculture areas of all the nutrients, nitrates, phosphates and rain them into the beaches and coastal areas that serve to fertilize the red tide, exactly what we don’t want,” explains Hastings.


Dr. Hastings says heavy rain and runoff could turn the already 145-mile-long bloom that stretches more than 10 miles out into the Gulf into an even bigger algae bloom.

“If there are a lot of nutrients released into the water from the heavy rain, it would be a bad thing and it doesn’t matter how close the storm is. I think it’s a likely possibility,” says Hastings.

With millions of dollars going towards research, Dr. Hastings says it’s time money went to better regulation.

“Eight to 10 years ago, our water management districts were excellent, were better at monitoring, but in the last eight to 10 years, we’ve seen a decrease in monitoring and a decrease in concern for the nutrients going into the ocean,” says Hastings.

Red Tide has become a political issue but keep it to the facts or respectful debate.

Political posts on this thread were moved to a new thread in the SoWal Lounge.

Good move. Sorry I succumbed

I assume the red tide is gone?

I assume the red tide is gone?

Haven't noticed any. I don't think there is any official sampling going on.

Haven't noticed any. I don't think there is any official sampling going on.

Some coughing in spots

Lots of dead fish in Seagrove today. It’s definitely back.

BMB dead fish and lots of coughing here and at Dune Allen.

Same at the Eastern Lake access in Seagrove

Grayton, WaterColor, Seagrove, WaterSound very light yesterday. A little more noticeable in Blue Mountain Beach. I was on walkovers so not on the beach to see if there were any dead fish. There are a lot of people on the beaches in town on Fall Break.

Yep, definitely present Saturday in Dune Allen. Not as bad as a few weeks ago, but some dead marine life and airborne irritants.

Santa Rosa Beach

Is the Bay in trouble? We have owned property here in Walton County either on the Bay or close to the Bay for about 17 years. Until this past week I have hardly ever seen a dead fish other than a catfish that someone tossed back. Last weekend I saw literally thousands of dead fish over about 100 feet of shoreline! The strong winds created waves of rolling churning dead fish. I tried to find out if anyone is testing the water for red tide or some other substance causing the massive fish kill. We contacted two organizations and neither was aware of red tide in Choctawhatchee Bay. We started researching red tide and found relatively small and somewhat isolated studies relating to the subject. We were shocked that there was not more information from State and Federal agencies. I contacted FWC and they said they would send someone out to take water samples but did not seem that alarmed. Most information states that red tide has been around for a very long time and is considered a natural occurring marine process. We decided to see if it was isolated by visiting other shorelines around the bay and dead fish was everywhere. I understand the consequences of an economy that depends on tourism to overstate the growing concern of red tide but this is ridiculous. I suggest that some of our money go to more research in the Choctawhatchee Bay if we want to protect this valuable ecosystem. Yes, this is an alarming post! Deal with it...

Is the Bay in trouble? We have owned property here in Walton County either on the Bay or close to the Bay for about 17 years. Until this past week I have hardly ever seen a dead fish other than a catfish that someone tossed back. Last weekend I saw literally thousands of dead fish over about 100 feet of shoreline! The strong winds created waves of rolling churning dead fish. I tried to find out if anyone is testing the water for red tide or some other substance causing the massive fish kill. We contacted two organizations and neither was aware of red tide in Choctawhatchee Bay. We started researching red tide and found relatively small and somewhat isolated studies relating to the subject. We were shocked that there was not more information from State and Federal agencies. I contacted FWC and they said they would send someone out to take water samples but did not seem that alarmed. Most information states that red tide has been around for a very long time and is considered a natural occurring marine process. We decided to see if it was isolated by visiting other shorelines around the bay and dead fish was everywhere. I understand the consequences of an economy that depends on tourism to overstate the growing concern of red tide but this is ridiculous. I suggest that some of our money go to more research in the Choctawhatchee Bay if we want to protect this valuable ecosystem. Yes, this is an alarming post! Deal with it...

Red Tide has been in the area for a while. There is no way to make it go away. Testing the water will do nothing. It is Not an alarming situation but a natural occurring one. There is plenty of information on line about Red Tide. It is always a good idea to be informed.

Red Tide has been around a long time. Agreed. In your expert opinion would you say that it is a natural occurrence in the Choctawhatchee Bay? I am all for keeping things on the down low to prevent overreaction but this is pretty bad. We picked up two tractor loads (front end loader bucket) along the shoreline of dead fish and hardly made a dent. The wave action on a natural shoreline will cover the dead fish with sand and the rest just sink to the bottom like oil and corexit (out of site out of mind). In our area we have low salinity because of the fresh water creeks and rivers and Karenia Brevis is not supposed to tolerate low salinity. Testing the water is important but just like you say it does nothing other than maybe predicting the next fish kill. FWC will test and let me know if it is red tide and that will be that. This may be natural but it is not normal at least in my 17 years of living and working next to the bay. The FWC website says if a fish is skinned and filleted it is okay to eat because the toxins accumulate in the guts. Should we be concerned? I think we should. Should we be alarmed. All I can say is that I hope the experts are expertly informed.

The weird thing about the bay fish kill was no respiratory irritation like we have been having at the beach with the red tide. Some of us are wondering if something else is going on. Low oxygen levels was one guess. It would be nice to know what the problem really is.

We have had large red tide kills in the bay a few times in the past 20 years

While cleaning up the dead fish I had no allergy/asthma like symptoms but my wife did even with a mask. Maybe we will soon find out by testing the water but I am not fully convinced it is Karenia Brevis because of our low salinity. Low Oxygen levels would cause major fish kills like this but what is behind low Oxygen levels? I know the military is testing sonic waves as they have stated that it could affect GPS. Something is going on and I feel like it ain't exactly mother nature doing it's thing.

Air Force is a very large polluter in the air and waters.

I have been here for 17 of those 20 years and I don't ever recall a fish kill of any kind let alone one of this magnitude. I don't know everything that is why I keep asking questions. Do you know if the bay fish kills you are referring to was authenticated by any agency?

Continuous water testing is the only way to get real information to answer some of the questions you keep asking. The present governor of our state, Rick Scott, cut the budget for monitoring water by $700,000,000. If some of that data that was lost was available to the scientists who study water quality then maybe they could have answers to this problem that is growing in Florida waters. Without those eight years of lost data, we have little chance of understanding the problems we will be facing in the future. Fact.

I agree that Rick Scott is/was bad for our environment. Please vote. I am not that interested in blaming politicians because we the people vote and elect our representatives. It happens to be our form of government (representative democracy). We can let our representatives know that we are not happy about stuff but once they are elected but we are stuck with them. It only causes division when we blame other voters for electing a bad representative. Activism should be about supporting a better candidate rather all this moral high ground stuff. Anyway something is wrong in the Bay and I still don't know if it is Karenia Brevis or something else. I think we all should be alarmed and ask questions until we find the answers. BTW to your point about Rick Scott his create jobs BS with Visit Florida is spending a lot of money letting potential tourist know that there are plenty of non-hurricane and non-red tide beaches in Florida to visit. I am registered republican voter and I am so disappointed that we have such poor representatives of our environment who are willing to put economics ahead of all other things.

I agree that Rick Scott is/was bad for our environment. Please vote. I am not that interested in blaming politicians because we the people vote and elect our representatives. It happens to be our form of government (representative democracy). We can let our representatives know that we are not happy about stuff but once they are elected but we are stuck with them. It only causes division when we blame other voters for electing a bad representative. Activism should be about supporting a better candidate rather all this moral high ground stuff. Anyway something is wrong in the Bay and I still don't know if it is Karenia Brevis or something else. I think we all should be alarmed and ask questions until we find the answers. BTW to your point about Rick Scott his create jobs BS with Visit Florida is spending a lot of money letting potential tourist know that there are plenty of non-hurricane and non-red tide beaches in Florida to visit. I am registered republican voter and I am so disappointed that we have such poor representatives of our environment who are willing to put economics ahead of all other things.

My post had no high political bias. It was a simple fact that without robust water monitoring the scientist who are trying to insure water quality have no facts to work with to do their job. If you are a Republican and you care about environmental protection, you are most definitely backing the wrong jack-ass.

I'm predicting a red tide in South Walton tonight.