Monitoring efforts over the past week have detected the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, at background concentrations in several coastal areas of Florida, according to the latest reports. Officials emphasize that these low levels currently pose no widespread risk of fish kills or respiratory irritation.
In Southwest Florida, sampling revealed background concentrations of K. brevis in one sample collected from Sarasota County and three samples gathered offshore of Monroe County. Further north, in Northwest Florida, one sample from Pasco County also showed background concentrations of the organism. No presence of K. brevis was observed along Florida’s East Coast during the same period.
Encouragingly, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has not received any reports of fish kills suspected to be related to red tide via its Fish Kill Hotline or from other partners over the past week. Similarly, there have been no reports of respiratory irritation suspected to be linked to red tide exposure in Florida…