St. Petersburg cleans up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours due to Red Tide, Elsa

St. Petersburg cleans up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours due to Red Tide, Elsa

By Matt Cohen

Source: tampabay

7/9/2016

The city’s shoreline was besieged by dead fish and Red Tide blooms.

The sidewalk along the shore at North Shore Park reeked of death Friday. Just off into the water, crews in yellow jumpsuits and tall rubber boots scooped dead fish off the top of the water with pool skimmers, put them into trash bags and loaded them into a dump truck. Hundreds of dead fish were still out there, floating just a few feet from shore.

Crews picked up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours — and they weren’t even done.

The fish were killed by toxic Red Tide blooms and then pushed ashore by Tropical Storm Elsa, said St. Petersburg Emergency Manager Amber Boulding at a Friday news conference. The city has collected 15 tons of dead fish in the past 10 days, she believes the 9 tons that recently washed ashore was blown in by the storm’s winds.
“You look at Elsa and that push of water from the wind seems to have definitely pushed in more of the fish kill,” Boulding said.

The conclusion to Justin Bloom, a board member for the environmental groups Tampa Bay and Suncoast Waterkeeper, is inescapable:

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