Red Tide

Hurricane Ian’s landfall on Sept. 28 last year helped foster a red-tide-a-thon that lasted eight months. Now there have been seven blue-green algae health advisories in Lee County alone since May

Blooms have already formed in Lake Okeechobee this spring and things are shaping up for a repeat of 2018 in the Caloosahatchee River this summer after Hurricane Ian set in motion the same events as Irma.

There has still been a profound increase in sargassum in the Atlantic, and thus Florida’s beaches, compared to the early years of the USF study.

Red tide had been present along the Gulf coast since shortly after Hurricane Ian swept ashore in the Fort Myers area.

Red tide has been a scourge of the region since Hurricane Ian struck Collier and Lee counties last year. It has finally dissipated from much of the area.

Researchers call it "sea sawdust," and it has a friendly relationship with the organism that causes red tide.

State environmental officials are saying some red tide is still lingering in southern Sarasota County.

Medium amounts of red tide are still being reported in southern Sarasota County.

State environmental officials on Wednesday said low amounts of red tide are still present along the Ringling Causeway and at Lido Beach. Further south, low amounts are persisting at Nokomis Beach.

Red tide is sticking around parts of the Pinellas and Sarasota coastlines.