Lake Okeechobee Discharge and Red Tide – Can anything be Done?
Our thanks to longtime cruiser and regular Cruisers’ Net contributor for this disturbing report from south Florida.
Hi Capt,
We moved ashore to St James city Florida last August (Jean needed another hip replaced) and we still cruise on our new to us 30 Mainship Pilot. Come down and visit we have room in our canal home. The fishing was great until a month ago the discharge from Lake O and the red tide hit the area. Our last visit to Cayo Costa made us sick from all the dead fish and the red tide made us ill. Dead 400lb groupers, dolphins, manatees and over 300 turtles line the shores of Sanibel, Captiva and Cayo Costa, even a whale dead on the beach. The sad truth is no one in government is doing much than saying the same things they always do. The red tide comes every year, but the Lake O discharge is a fixable problem.
Now our biggest concern is the water here has gone from beautiful and clean to horrible and filled with dead 
fish. Between the red tide and Lake O waste discharges, the wildlife does not have a chance. I do not know what can be done. I know that writers like Carl Hiaasen have been complaining about the Lake O discharges since I started boating 45 yrs ago and politicals have promised and made $$$ off of vested interests that are raping Florida.
Consider sharing with your readers the petition.
The picture is a canal in St James City. You can google the latest news and see more dead manatees and sea turtles.
Semper Fi!
Sonny Reeves
Be Salt and Light, wash feet!
St James City Fl 33956
see blog https://saltlightwashfeet.wordpress.com
Worst red tide bloom in over a decade kills hundreds of marine mammals along Florida’s west coast
AccuWeather.com
The toxic red tide that’s decimating Florida’s marine life
NBCNews.com
Red Tide Invades Florida Beaches, Killing And Injuring Marine Life
NBC 6 South Florida
Dead fish, red tide, plague Florida tourists, beaches
Tampabay.com
Comments from Cruisers (2)
We cruised east to west across the Okeechobee Waterway a little over a week ago. Saw and smelled the algae, witnessed and smelled the dead fish AND saw crabbers emptying their traps in the same water along the Caloosahatchie River above Ft. Myers. The state and local governments allow the crabbers to harvest their crop in that filth? Someone told me that “hey, the crabbers have to make money to feed their kids.” Does that make it OK? Enjoy your stone crab claws and your crab cakes.
Wade Ehlen
They need to embark upon a long term dredging and remediation project to get rid of the organic muck in the lake that feeds the algae. Instead, both PB County and the Corp are interested in small, inexpensive projects that will not improve anything but they can then say they are doing something. They actually want to dig more containment basins to hold more water and muck. Or they want to skim the algae off the top of the canals so it doesn’t look as bad. No one seems to have the courage to address this problem correctly and remove the organic sediment from the lake. Will be expensive and take many (10+) years but it will stop the algae blooms. And yes, I am involved with some proposed remediation that is unlikely to happen.