August 13, 2018 — On the fine white sand beaches of Anna Maria Island, the putrid corpses of all sorts of sea life are tangled in the seagrass just ahead of the surf.
As thunder rolled in, Matt Nolan, a rusted green metal wagon full of garbage bags of dead fish behind him, dug another glove covered hand into the sand. Nolan dumped a baby flounder, an eel and a Spanish mackerel into the wagon and inched forward to do it all over again.
The 49-year-old life coach from Chicago has been doing it almost every morning of his two-week vacation since tons of death washed up on these shores. Heading about 100 yards in both directions, he estimates he’s collected about 300 pounds a day.
He isn’t paid and no one asked him to do it. But there’s a lot at stake, Nolan said. He’s been coming to this beach every year since he was 11 years old. But since his father died, he wanted to keep it the pristine paradise he keeps coming back to.
From Anna Maria to Englewood Beach, algae’s noxious effect shows no signs of letting up any time soon
On the fine white sand beaches of Anna Maria Island, the putrid corpses of all sorts of sea life are tangled in the seagrass just ahead of the surf.