Originally published by Boca Beacon on January 2, 2025
The island had a large number of dead mullet up and down the beach over t he New Year, the result of a possible red tide outbreak offshore.
“This is an unfortunate persistent presence of Red Tide since the Hurricanes a few months ago,” said Calusa Waterkeeper Codty Pierce, in an email to the Boca Beacon. “We are going on 3+ months of consistent confirmations via red tide sampling. The immense amount of runoff that has followed suite from storm has seemingly kept this metabolized.”
The Florida Fish and Wild life Conservation Committee listed the latest Karenia brevis sample from Dec. 26 as low abundance at the Boca Grande Pier in Gasparilla Sound. Further south, about ten miles off
Sanibel, a sample from Dec. 27 showed high levels of red t ide at over 1 million cells per liter.“Florida Fish & Wildlife has listed some mention offish kill in the SWFL region, but I think it has been mostly small fish,” said Pierce. Pierce said t hat it was often mullet, “especially since they are foraging so often for phytoplankton, that they are likely to be one of the first to come in contact with the organism.”