Hotel occupancy dropped by 11.3 percent in Sarasota County during the last three months of 2018, the steepest year-over-year decline during that quarterly period since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in 2001 and a sign of just how bad red tide has been for the region’s economy. Visit Sarasota County President Virginia Haley mentioned the…
A Southwest Florida couple is showing people how red tide has affected the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico. Curt Bowen and his wife Jennifer Graham have taken several diving trips off Florida’s west coast to show what conditions look like. Their latest expedition was off Boca Grande Wednesday, where they saw nothing but…
The red tide organism, Karenia brevis, still remains in Southwest Florida from northern Pinellas to northern Collier counties and extends offshore (10 miles or more). Red tide concentrations increased in northern Collier counties over the past week. High observations also occurred in Southwest Florida over the past week in Charlotte and Lee counties and 25 miles…
Coming just days after Scott was heckled at a campaign stop by protesters who dubbed him “Red Tide Rick,” the new action plan drew criticism from the Sierra Club, which called the proposed center “nothing more than a self-serving publicity stunt.” Resorting to clay to treat the algae is not new. Prior experiments with it in Florida…