Dive reports with beach/weather conditions

[aquacat8]

Aquacat, just a friendly piece of advice on diving Venice: You'll find the viz to be it's best with easterly winds and incoming tides. Onshore winds and outgoing tides tend to degrade the visibility and the closer to the Jetties, the worse it gets!

Thanks for the advice!

 

[aquacat8]

Service Club 7/21/18
Low tide, about to rise
Windy, rough surf
Began coughing so possible red tide
Called the dive

 

[aquacat8]

Don Pedro State Park 7/24/18
Despite the west wind I thought a swim behind a barrier island might be possible
Lonely SUP rental did not bode well...
began coughing as I walked down the road to the water
At the dock dead fish of various sizes and rust colored red tide water
I did not get in the water to swim with death!
I heard 2 dead manatees and a dolphin had been found, and also there was that whale shark that washed up on Sanibel. This is really screwing up my trip and is so sad…

 

[2TH DIVR]

Winds are predicted to become more easterly by the weekend.
This should make conditions by next week doable.
I have dove with red tide present, Where the water was actually red in color and dead stuff everywhere.
After a 2 hour dive the only thing I noticed was a slight tingling of my lips.
It's surprising how fast new life moves back after the red tide is gone.

 

[aquacat8]

Winds are predicted to become more easterly by the weekend.
This should make conditions by next week doable.
I have dove with red tide present, Where the water was actually red in color and dead stuff everywhere.
After a 2 hour dive the only thing I noticed was a slight tingling of my lips.
It's surprising how fast new life moves back after the red tide is gone.

I’m so happy to hear that new life moves in quickly, and also that swimming or diving and it is not that bad. I think I may have inadvertently been in it already…

I have read that swimming in the red tide can be OK as long as you don’t have bad respiratory or skin irritation from it, but that swimming with the dead fish around can be dangerous because of bacteria.

 

[Sh@rkW@tcher]

Any red tide reports for either Venice public beach, Service Club or South Brohard beach in the last few days?

 

[Insta-Gator]

I'm not in Venice right now, but Red Tide - Statewide Status may help. Looks like it is still fairly high.

Respiratory irritation was reported over the past week in Sarasota County (7/18-7/19 at Lido Key; 7/17-7/18 and 7/20-7/24 at Manasota Beach; 7/19-7/22 and 7/24-7/25 at Nokomis; 7/18-7/24 at Venice Beach; 7/18-7/25 at Venice North Jetty), Lee County (7/21-7/22 and 7/25 at Bonita Beach; 7/22 and 7/24-7/25 at Bowman’s Beach; 7/23-7/24 at Captiva; 7/19 at Cayo Costa; 7/20-7/25 at Gasparilla Island; 7/24 at Light House Beach; 7/25 at Lovers Key State Park and Lynn Hall Beach Park), and Collier County (7/21-7/22 and 7/24-7/25 Barefoot Beach; 7/23 at Doctors Pass and Gordons Pass; 7/23 at Park Shore Beach).

 

[aquacat8]

I drove up to Sharkeys yesterday just to check it out, and I started coughing as I got out of the car. I immediately saw a dead rat near my car. LOL are rats affected by red tide? As I approached the beach I began coughingmore , and boy was the surf up. I pretty much left right away, but today’s another day the wind is changing and it is calming down I hope!

 

[aquacat8]

Today 7/27/18 I paddled my kayak through fish kills in Coral Creek behind Boca Grande, off Charlotte Harbor. With the wind dropped no respiratory irritation in this quiet waterway. Saw live fish too. Saw some manatees that were just wallowing, don’t know if they were sick. A fisherman told me a dead one was by Boca Grande pass. Beauty and devastation together.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Thanks for the report.