When you take a look at the regularly updated Red Tide Map published by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, you'll notice colored dots on the map.The dots show where testing has been done, with colors ranging from yellow, to orange, to red indicating just how strong the bloom was when the samples were taken. But oftentimes, you can look at the map before going to the beach, only to find that conditions are a bit different when you actually arrive there. So how is red tide testing done, and how does this information us know where it is? "I'm not sure if they are Whiting, but I've seen a couple of fish, they are about this big. And then I saw a tarpon two days ago on Sanibel at the other end. It was about a foot across, and four or five feet long. It was dead," said Anthony Lussier, who was fishing on Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Wednesday morning. Even though conditions on Sanibel were nice Wednesday, you could still see the occasional dead fish on the sand. Linsley Beitsch, visiting from Sarasota for some shelling, typically checks the red tide map before she visits a beach. "Because it's not worth wasting the gas and the time only to get out to the beach only to start coughing so much that you can't enjoy yourself," Beitsch said. She's one of countless Floridians and others who use these maps to decide which beaches to visit. It made us wonder, how is this data collected, and who is going out to get it? Recently we got the chance to tag along with researchers from FGCU's Water School, who are contracted with FWC to sample Red Tide data off Lee County's coasts. "I just think that deep sea map is. It's the biggest thing. and they updated daily. it just depends on when people can actually get out and collect stuff," said Adam Catasus from FGCU's Water School. "So like temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll turbidity, a bunch of other stuff to just look at how things are moving, how things are accessing different areas and stuff like that.So when you get the closer you get to shore, obviously, you know, the big thing with red tide is everybody wants to know if it's gonna affect the beach, right?That's why some testing is done by hand from the beach, as opposed to a boat, to show how it will affect people spending time on the sand. Larger blooms tend to linger offshore, and conditions like wind, tides, temperature and sunlight can all play a factor. Conditions on our day out prevented us from hitting all the test sites we needed to. "So, yeah, it wasn't the best, but, we did as much as we could, until we safely get back and stuff like that. Just absolutely got it done," Castus said. This means while this map can be a useful tool, it doesn't always paint a full picture.