SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Red tide continues to impact beaches across the Tampa Bay area, from Sarasota County up to Pinellas County. As spring break season kicks into high gear, visitors are feeling the effects of the ongoing algae blooms.
On Lido Key in Sarasota Monday, there weren’t many people on the beaches despite the blue skies and warm weather. We saw multiple people unload their cars and walk out to the beach only to pack back up minutes later.
Fish kills are impacting beaches across the county. Along Lido Beach Monday, dead fish lined the shore as far as you could see. With that, comes a stench in the air.
“It smells like really bad. I don’t know, this spring break, I think it is going to be like really awful,” said Mohamed Oummou who is visiting from Orlando.
Aside from the smell and the unpleasant views, beachgoers were coughing Monday. Higher concentrations of red tide are known to cause respiratory irritation.
“We came from Orlando for fishing, swimming, but we got surprised. We found like a lot of dead fish. When we went closer, I was coughing so bad,” said Fouad Belrhazi.
Local businesses are also feeling the impacts from the ongoing red tide. Kayak and paddleboard guides at Ted Sperling Nature Park on Lido Key are dealing with some slow days as red tide persists. This is typically part of their busiest time of the year.
“Most of the time these trailers would be empty right now, it would be pretty much every company out here would be sold out on these days, so it is definitely having a big affect out here for business,” said Coastal Kayak Adventures partner Tyler Caporale.
He alerted his customers to the ongoing conditions and offered them full refunds if they decided to cancel.
“This is truly not the experience that we want them to experience out here. The mangrove tunnels are some of the most beautiful, pristine things out here, so it definitely is a bummer that they really can’t get the full experience out here,” said Caporale.
He hopes once the conditions improve, folks will come back to the area to support their local businesses.
“This will affect us a lot. This is really where we make a lot of our money to kind of operate out here. This is our big couple of months because we have slower seasons out here, so this is a big impact for us right now. It is definitely unfortunate,” said the local business owner.
To see the latest red tide conditions, visit FWC’s website here.