Hurricane Milton has left a devastating mark on the beaches of Southwest Florida, where hundreds of dead fish are washing ashore, victims of a red tide bloom exacerbated by the storm.
Chris Whittman, co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, explains that the storm surge brings nutrients from the land—like fertilizers and sewage—that trigger these harmful blooms.
"Those hurricanes do a couple of things. They create an upwelling in the Gulf, which is where red tide originates. and so that can trigger a bloom. And then with all the water that comes onshore from a storm surge, as well as the water that runs off the landscape from rain that comes with it. All the nutrients on the landscape from fertilizers to backed up sewage infrastructure, failing sewage infrastructure can fuel, those red tide blooms," explained Whittman.
At Boca Grande, the scene is grim. John Blount, a local resident, surveyed the beach.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen in a while,” The smell is horrible out here between septic and rotting fish it makes me tear up," admitted Blount.
The fish kills stretches for miles, reaching as far north as Venice Beach.
Whittman said the bloom isn’t expected to linger or spread further south. With a forecast that shows little rain and minimal discharges from Lake Okeechobee, he suggests that this might dissipate sooner than expected. Still, the uncertainty remains; recovery could take days or even months, leaving the local ecosystem and community to grapple with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
Whittman said, "Currently, we don't see a ton of rain, in the forecast. So we are hopeful that, you know, this bloom will just kind of eat itself out of food and dissipate rather quickly. Our fisheries certainly don't need, you know, to be kicked while they're down again, you know, after a back to back storms like that."
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