Red Tide Status Update: 12/20/24

Over the past week, red tide was detected in 99 samples collected from the Gulf Coast of Florida. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were observed in seven samples: one from Hillsborough County, and six from and offshore of Sarasota County.

Satellite chlorophyll imagery (USF, NOAA NCCOS) continues to vary from day to day, when not obscured by cloud cover as it has been for Southwest Florida over the past few days. Earlier in the week, a patch of elevated chlorophyll suspected to contain red tide was observed offshore of Charlotte to Collier counties, and we will continue to track this as cloud-free satellite data becomes available.

Additional details are provided below.

• In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at background to low concentrations in and offshore of Pinellas County, background to medium concentrations in and offshore of Hillsborough County, background to low concentrations in and offshore of Manatee County, background to medium concentrations in and offshore of Sarasota County, background to low concentrations in and offshore of Lee County, and background to low concentrations in and offshore of Collier County.
• In Northwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed at very low concentrations in one sample collected from Franklin County.
• Along the Florida East Coast over the past week, K. brevis was not observed.

Fish kills suspected to be related to red tide were reported to FWC’s Fish Kill Hotline and other partners over the past week for Southwest Florida (offshore of Pinellas County and along Sarasota and Lee counties).

Respiratory Irritation suspected to be related to red tide was reported over the past week in Southwest Florida (Sarasota and Lee counties). For forecasts that use FWC and partner data, please visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Gulf of Mexico Harmful Algal Blooms Forecast.

Forecasts by the USF-FWC Collaboration for Prediction of Red Tides for Pinellas County to northern Monroe County predict net southern movement of surface waters and net southern to southeastern transport of subsurface waters in most areas over the next 3.5 days.

The next status report will be issued on Friday, December 27^th. Please check our daily sampling map, which can be accessed via the online status report on our Red Tide Current Status page. For more information on algal blooms and water quality, please visit Protecting Florida Together.

This information, including maps and reports with additional details, is also available on the FWRI Red Tide website. The website also provides links to additional information related to the topic of Florida red tide including satellite imagery, experimental red tide forecasts, shellfish harvesting areas, the FWC Fish Kill Hotline, the Florida Poison Information Center (to report human health effects related to exposure to red tide), and other wildlife related hotlines.

To learn more about various organisms that have been known to cause algal blooms in Florida waters, see the FWRI Red Tide Flickr page. Archived status maps can also be found on Flickr.       

The FWRI HAB group in conjunction with Mote Marine Laboratory now have a facebook page.  Please like our page and learn interesting facts concerning red tide and other harmful algal blooms in Florida.