After the Hurricanes, Florida Faces Red Tides

For many Florida residents, the last few weeks have involved reckoning with extreme weather, mandatory evacuations and destroyed buildings. Three hurricanes have hit the Sunshine State so far this year — and, as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune‘s Cheryl McCloud observed, hurricane season isn’t over yet. Flooding and property destruction aren’t the only aftereffects of the storms, however; there’s also something disquieting happening in the waters surrounding the state.

Red tides, to be precise. As the Associated Press’s Kate Payne reports, scientists have witnessed the development of an algal bloom off the state’s coastline near Tampa. The toxic amounts of algae, which can kill other marine life, generally leads to two outcomes: a red color visible in the water and an abundance of dead fish washing up on shore.

According to some scientists who spoke with Payne, the timing of the red tide in the hurricanes’ wake is no coincidence. Instead, they believe that the storms may have accelerated the growth of the algae in question. “It tends to intensify a bloom that’s already there,” oceanographer Richard Stumpf told the Associated Press.

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Red tides have been a relatively common sight in Florida in recent years. In 2021, the presence of toxic algae led to a variety of sharks fleeing the algal bloom and attempting to find cleaner water in a nearby canal.

The arrival of red tides isn’t the only disquieting effect of the hurricanes that recently struck the southeastern United States. The NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information were also struck by Hurricane Helene; this led to an interruption of services for some products using the data stored there. It’s both a blow to the environment itself and to the ways in which we respond to the environment.