The first thing they looked at was whether or not removing the fish kills early on prevented the algal blooms from getting any worse.

“Red tide can kill the fish, as the fish decay they release the nutrients back in the water that can feed back into red tide,” said Dr. Mike Parsons, Professor of Marine Science at Florida Gulf Coast University.

What they found was that removing dead fish did ensure they weren’t just adding fuel to the fire.

“What we found was that fish are in fact releasing a lot of nutrients," said Parsons.