Oh, great...

Thanks loads, Red Tide Rick:

Low levels of red tide have spread to Pensacola Beach

Low concentrations of red tide have been detected in the westernmost reaches of the Florida Panhandle.
   
The Pensacola News Journal reported that samples collected off the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier found "very low" levels of red tide, indicating the bloom that appeared off Panama City in September is spreading west.
   
A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report says the samples were taken just below the water's surface. Medium concentration levels were found about 13 miles (21 kilometers) off shore on Saturday.
       
The bloom can kill marine life and cause respiratory distress in humans.

https://www.wkrg.com/news/northwest-florida/low-levels-of-red-tide-have-spread-to-pensacola-beach/1568840707

This is the most important issue in the senate and governors races. The natural beauty of Florida has been compromised by big sugar and south florida development. The failed ACE and now the spread........I was perfectly healthy until I watched a Christian surfing contest on Navarre Beach and got whacked by the red tide. I was sick for three weeks with breathing issues. A year later they found that my lung was collapsed on a tumor in my upper left lung. Please leave when the red tide is in town........I believe it is killing people.

What the hell is ACE?

This was first reported in the PNJ on Thursday 11/1. That morning there was a very strong south-southeast wind that whipped up the surf and created an aerosol blown inland. Leaving our house, two half-blocks from the Gulf, hubby and I both started to cough a little, and he commented he could smell red tide (he has a very sensitive sniffer). This was before he had even read the article (I'd read it online the night before but hadn't yet mentioned it).

Anyway, as soon as the cold front came through and the wind turned, the surf was damped down and whatever very low concentrations had been near shore were likely pushed back out to sea -- or at least we could no longer sense their presence, since they were no longer being carried onshore.

I've been through a couple of serious red tides since living here on the island, fish kills and all, and it's really nasty. Am just hoping this bloom will die off with the rapidly cooling Gulf waters (down five degrees to 75 F just since last week).

I don't believe there's any evidence that red tide kills people, causes cancer, etc., but it's very definitely a significant respiratory irritant in heavier concentrations.

I don't believe there's any evidence that red tide kills people, causes cancer, etc., but it's very definitely a significant respiratory irritant in heavier concentrations.

I agree that the evidence has not shown the same, but What it did to me was mess me up for three weeks. I will never know the cause, but it was a horrible experience which I could have avoided if I knew there was a red tide bloom. When it is killing fish and mammals in south Florida.......I guess I can wait for the science, but to me it is the most dangerous thing in Florida.

2seaoat wrote: The failed ACE and now...

What is "the failed ACE"?

Army Corps of Engineers.....they have destroyed south florida drainage with short sighted engineering short cuts. I would like to see the entire department dissolved and a new national engineering initiative connected to another branch of the government like commerce department. They continue to waste money and kill people.

2seaoat wrote: I would like to see the entire department dissolved and a new national engineering initiative connected to another branch of the government like commerce department.  

Good luck with THAT!

2seaoat wrote: it was a horrible experience which I could have avoided if I knew there was a red tide bloom.  When it is killing fish and mammals in south Florida.......I guess I can wait for the science, but to me it is the most dangerous thing in Florida.

To me the most dangerous thing in Florida is Rick Scott.

I'm sorry you had no warning of the red tide bloom. If it was that bad, I can't imagine why it wasn't public information. On the other hand -- not saying this was you, specifically -- but I've noticed that many vacationers and snow birds are just not really tuned in to local news.

are just not really tuned in to local news.


correct. I have never in my life seen sports coverage on a local station which was so screwed up on its coverage....no MLB, no NBA, and just a little NFL. It is like I landed on a different planet. No major league baseball scores......geez no wonder it is the dark ages and people cheer for Trump. I got bushwhacked with red tide....no warning, and the worst part was that kids were surfing in the competition.

2seaoat wrote:the worst part was that kids were surfing in the competition.

Right. Sure seems from here as though it should've been called off.

Here's some history:

https://weather.com/news/news/florida-toxic-lake-okeechobee/

"...The most recent hope for a reversal came in 2008 when then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican at the time, announced the state and U.S. Sugar had reached an agreement under which Florida would buy out the company, including it’s land, about 180,000 acres, and send the water south again. Toxins would be laundered naturally as the water made its long journey through grassy swampland to the Florida Bay. The natural order would be restored.

“I can envision no better gift to the Everglades, the people of Florida and the people of America — as well as our planet — than to place in public ownership this missing link that represents the key to true restoration,” Crist said when he announced the deal with great fanfare.

But state officials, citing the severe financial impact of the Great Recession, purchased only one-seventh of the land. Eight years later, the state shows no interest in exercising its option to buy the rest, an option that’s good through 2020. This, despite an economic recovery and an overwhelming vote by Floridians in 2014 to accept a tax specifically to buy the land. The tax, a documentation fee on real estate transactions, is being collected but the legislature isn’t using the revenue to buy the land. This helped stoke the fury of coastal residents protesting the algae blooms with chants of “Buy the land” and “Send the water south.”..."


**********

Would love to have Crist back as governor. Obviously that'll never happen.