A pretty severe red tide occurred along the North Florida coast recently. Along with thousands of dead fish, it closed beaches and put a dent in the tourist industry. It also changed some fishing plans, changes that actually turned out for the good.
What is a Red Tide?
A red tide occurs when an algae bloom occurs in the water. More specifically in the Florida area, a phytoplankton called karenia brevis is the culprit. There are several different phytoplanktons that can cause a red tide, and all of them have harmful health effects.
What Does It Do?
Scientists are not sure what actually causes a red tide to occur. All of the various organisms that result in a red tide occur naturally in the water. The problem comes when they have an overabundance of organisms in one area. They can cause a red hue in the water (hence the term red tide) and they can cause high fish mortality.
In some areas of the world the particular organism can invade shellfish. While they don’t kill the shellfish, they are poisonous to people who eventually eat them. Deaths occur every year for eating these poisoned shellfish.
In the Florida variety, the red tide kills fish - small ones at first and larger ones later if the bloom lasts for more than a day or two. It also causes skin rash, congestions, scratchy throat and coughing when it invades a person. It does all this by releasing a neurotoxin that paralyzes the fish. It can be released in the air by wave and surf action, and many times beaches are closed for health reasons during a bloom.
How Long Do They Last?
Red tides can last from one to several days, depending on wind, water and salinity conditions. These phytoplankton need a specific salinity level to thrive. Often a heavy rain over the affected area will kill a red tide in a day or two by decreasing that salinity.
So, How Do I Fish?
In my case, I chose to fish in an area that had not been affected by the tide. I changed the plans I had to fish in the area of the tide, and moved inland to an area of reduced salinity. If you can’t get away from the tide, my advice is STAY HOME. I did launch and run into the tide just to get a view of what it looked like. The water – normally a nice sea green – was a rusty reddish brown color, and dead fish were floating everywhere. Along with the dead fish came their rotting stench. It was not pretty. Before we could turn around and run back inland away from the tide, I began coughing, and had a raspy throat the rest of the day. Needless to say that I was the only boat out there in the tide.
Fishing the Tide
My cousin Alan and I managed to catch a small variety of fish, including seatrout, flounder and croaker, and we caught them with no red tide in sight. I merely changed fishing plans to sort of “go with the flow”. We did not have the excellent day I had promised Alan a month before, but we did catch a few fish.
