MASS FISH DIE-OFF: Another Fish Kill Due To Red Tide In Indian River Lagoon, Florida - Health Experts Advise The Sensitive To Avoid Area Of New Infestation!

October 20, 2013 - UNITED STATES - A reddish algae had dead fish washing up ashore and left a nauseating odor wafting along Riverside Drive on Monday.

As biologists test the water, health officials say people with respiratory or other health conditions should avoid the algae-infested areas, or eating seafood caught there.

On Monday there was a strong, irritating odor from the Indian River Lagoon along Riverside Drive in Melbourne,
along with a fishkill north of the Melbourne Causeway. MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY

Diane Barile, a retired biologist who taught at Florida Tech and lives along Riverside Drive, just north of U.S. 192, wasn’t taking any chances.

“I’m closing all the windows,” Barile said. “I’m just not going outside.”

The lagoon took on a coppery reddish hue near Barile’s house Monday, where large dead mullet washed ashore in the brisk wind. “It’s like a red line,” Barile said of the discolored water.

Dolphin she saw early Monday seemed in a frenzy, she said, as if affected by the algae.

Recent lagoon water tests have not found Karenia brevis, the algae species most commonly referred to as red tide. That algae hasn’t popped up in Brevard since 2007.

But other algae that similarly discolor the water have been blooming. State wildlife officials for weeks have reported patchy algae blooms in the lagoon. Among them is a reddish algae called Pyrodinium bahamense, a brown algae named Aureoumbra lagunensis — also referred to as brown tide — and a yellowish-brown algae called Pseudo-nitzschia.

State wildlife officials gathered water and fish samples Monday to try to identify the main culprit in the fish kills and the respiratory issues Barile reported to health officials.

Meanwhile, people concerned about health effects of any algae bloom should call the Florida Poison Information Center, state health officials said.

“You should not go close to it if you are sensitive,” said Brevard County Health Department Director Heidar Heshmati. “Most of them (algae blooms), they may have neurotoxin.” - Florida Today.

MASS FISH DIE-OFF: Algae-Related Fish Kills Plague Indian River Lagoon, Florida - September Peak Month In Brevard, Accounting For About 15 Percent!

September 19, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Dead sheepshead and pinfish speckled local waters such as the canal behind Nikki Pingston’s house, fouling the air countywide this week and souring the disposition of waterfront dwellers.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything done to the bodies of the fish,” Pingston said of the hundreds of scaly corpses in her canal this week. “That’s the first time I’ve seen the fish floating out there.”

Many have reported similar isolated patches of dead fish throughout the Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon and Banana River in recent weeks. Others have spotted groups offish gasping for air.

Among the reports this past weekend were an estimated 1,000 dead fish in the Banana River near Mathers Bridge and Telemar Bay Marina, according to the state’s fish kill database.

The lagoon’s fish have been suffocating under an onslaught from this summer’s ongoing brown tide and several other algae blooms in the Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon and Banana River, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Tripp Pingston, 6, and neighbor Rileigh Capozzi, 7, look at the canal water behind the Pingston family home
on Sandpiper Drive, where hundreds of dead fish are spread out. / Tim Shortt/FLORIDA TODAY

FWC researchers have documented patchy blooms of algae in all three of those water bodies, resulting in discolored water and fish kills in some spots.

Algae adds oxygen to the water during the day, as a byproduct of photosynthesis, but less so on cloudy days. Then at night, the algae consumes oxygen, at times depleting the water of enough oxygen to kill fish in the early morning hours.

But biologists say summer fish kills are nothing new this time of year, typically peaking in August and September in Brevard.

Warmer summer water holds less oxygen than cooler water. And bacteria in water can consume oxygen as algae and other organic matter rots.

“Just this past week, we’ve had several going on at once,” said Rich Paperno, research administrator at FWC’s Indian River Field Laboratory in Melbourne, of the recent fish kills.

“It seems it’s been fairly quiet in terms of fish kills,” Paperno added. “It’s typical for this time of year.”

According to a FLORIDA TODAY analysis of FWC’s fish kill database:

• More than 1,500 fish kills were reported in Brevard County since 1973. Melbourne and Merritt Island had the most, more than 300 each, or a combined 43 percent of the total reported in the county.
• September has been the peak month for fish kills in Brevard, with 224 die-offs, or about 15 percent.
• The leading cause of fish kills in Brevard was low oxygen in the water, accounting for 397 of the fish kills. Almost as many, 378, happened for unknown reasons. Algae blooms were the third-leading cause, 219 reported die-offs.

WATCH: Algae-related fish kills plague Indian River Lagoon.

The database, which also includes incidences such as manatee, sea turtle and bird deaths, is based on reports made to thestatewide Marine Fish Kill Hotline. FWC follows up on each report,although they can’t verify every account through direct observation.

Pingston can. Her canal off Sandpiper Drive links with Grand Canal, which runs along Tortoise Island and Lansing Island, where similar fish kills have been reported this week.

Paperno, of FWC, has seen it before.

“That Grand Canal seems to be a common place where they happen,” Paperno said.

“Any canal with a lot of housing along it is probably a hotspot,” he said. “You’ve taking out the natural habitat.”

Loss of mangroves, overfertilizing and septic tanks contribute to the algae explosions that can kill fish and other lagoon wildlife, biologists say.

Since moving to Sandpiper about a year ago, the Pingstons already have witnessed four dead manatees. Earlier this year, Nikki Pingston said she took a sick cormorant to a local wildlife hospital. It didn’t make it.

“This is just sad to see this,” she said. - Florida Today.

EXTREME WEATHER: Drought Creating Severely Dry Conditions Across Florida - Driest Winter in 16 Counties Since 1915!

How dry we are.  The entire state of Florida was classified as suffering from drought conditions, as of last week. The rain that fell over the weekend did little to help, according to Jim Karels, director of the Florida Forest Service.

Severe drought ground cracks northern Everglades.

What's needed is more — a lot more.  "A tropical storm without the wind that gives us a nice 10 inches of rain around the state would do wonders," Karels said.  The drought now plaguing Florida has been growing since July 2010, said Karels, whose agency keeps tabs on the state's wildfire potential. Some parts of the state have fallen so far below their normal average rainfall that the deficit has hit 30 inches, he said.  Normally Florida's dry season runs from October to May, said state meteorologist Amy Godsey. But without any heavy rainfall from tropical storms last year, the dry season started earlier, she said, and even the winter rainfall was below average, thanks to the phenomenon known as La Niña, which is driven by colder than usual Pacific Ocean temperatures. 

In the 16 counties covered by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, commonly known as Swiftmud, this has been the 11th driest winter since records started being kept in 1915.  As a result of all that dry weather, Karels said, "you can hardly find a swamp around the state that's wet, and a lot of the lakes have gone dry." His agency has been tracking fires in Polk and Brevard counties and in the Panhandle, he said, and some counties have already banned all burning.  Swiftmud's board has imposed once-a-week watering restrictions on Hernando and Citrus counties and other areas north of Tampa Bay, and will likely extend those same restrictions to Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties soon.  No relief is likely in the next month, according to Godsey. But La Niña has weakened, she said, and once June begins — bringing with it the traditional start of Florida's hurricane season — the rains are likely to return. - Tampa Bay Times.