August 13, 2021 — Another eruption of red tide on the southwest Florida coast has brought fish kills and public health advisories to beaches, and commercial fishermen are pitching in the help scientists map out the effects.
Fishermen who work offshore of the Tampa Bay region are providing oceanographic data to NMFS’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center, as part of the center’s ongoing collaboration with the Florida Commercial Watermen’s Conservation.
The non-profit group is dedicated to science-based water quality testing and marine stewardship, founded and operated by commercial fishermen in response to devastating red tide blooms of the last five years.
The group trains and outfit fishermen with water monitoring kits, for its mission ‘to quantify the environmental and oceanographic conditions before, during, and after red tide blooms to better understand their dynamics and provide timely decision-support to increase the resilience of fishermen and fishing communities on the west coast of Florida to red tide events.”