Sanibel residents - what's the present red tide situation?
Mar 9th, 2002, 05:10 AM
#1
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Sanibel residents - what's the present red tide situation?
Oh boy, I just read another post that red-tide is going on along the gulf coast. I'll be arriving on Sanibel Island March 23rd. Have things cleared up at all? I was there once during red tide and was NASTY. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. After a winter in Buffalo, I am so looking forward to a week on your beautiful beaches.
Mar 9th, 2002, 07:32 AM
#3
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I know that here in Naples, I resumed my morning beach walks yesterday. I had not been doing them for the last couple of weeks as I would start coughing within minutes of getting to the beach. This morning I saw no dead fish at all on the beach either. Sanibel is surprisingly close by water. I assume it has pretty well cleared up there too.
Mar 10th, 2002, 08:22 PM
#6
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No red tide in the Tampa Bay area currently.
Further, red tide, though it kills fish and is a throat irritant for some of us humans while we are at the beach, resulting in a ticklish cough, does not make humans sick. Meg's neighbors have come down with something else, and there's been plenty of "something else" going around recently, if they've arrived home sick as dogs.
Further, red tide, though it kills fish and is a throat irritant for some of us humans while we are at the beach, resulting in a ticklish cough, does not make humans sick. Meg's neighbors have come down with something else, and there's been plenty of "something else" going around recently, if they've arrived home sick as dogs.
Mar 11th, 2002, 09:45 AM
#7
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Olive is right. I don't see what everyone is getting so bent out of shape about and cancelling your vacation. It is an irritant, but unless you have a flaming case of COPD it gives you a cough. Big deal. Don't eat the dead fish washed up on the beach...It usually blows back to sea in a day or so.
Mar 11th, 2002, 06:54 PM
#10
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I agree. I have asthma. As I write this, I am suffering from a rather nasty (and rare) bout in New York City. I was initially particularly concerned by this thread because I am leaving Friday for 11 days in Marco and Naples.
I have spoken extensively with both the Hilton on Marco and the Club level Concierge at the Ritz in Naples and nobody mentioned anything about red tide. If it was particularly bad, I would expect something to be said, even if it does mean lost revenue for the hotel!
Things seem to have cleared up (I have checked a few websites), but you can bet that if I show up at the Ritz and the red tide is so bad as to make me cough I will be checking right back out and heading to Palm Beach!
I have spoken extensively with both the Hilton on Marco and the Club level Concierge at the Ritz in Naples and nobody mentioned anything about red tide. If it was particularly bad, I would expect something to be said, even if it does mean lost revenue for the hotel!
Things seem to have cleared up (I have checked a few websites), but you can bet that if I show up at the Ritz and the red tide is so bad as to make me cough I will be checking right back out and heading to Palm Beach!
Mar 12th, 2002, 04:05 AM
#11
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To: I agree with OliveOyl.....
Are you serious? Red tide is downright disgusting - ugly and stinky. It can definitely put a damper on your vacation, especially if your main purpose for that vacation is to sit on the beach!!!
To the others who are concerned about red tide, I have found out (since my original post) that it has pretty much cleared up on Sanibel and that Ft. Myers Beach has been red tide free, so go and enjoy yourselves on the beach!
Are you serious? Red tide is downright disgusting - ugly and stinky. It can definitely put a damper on your vacation, especially if your main purpose for that vacation is to sit on the beach!!!
To the others who are concerned about red tide, I have found out (since my original post) that it has pretty much cleared up on Sanibel and that Ft. Myers Beach has been red tide free, so go and enjoy yourselves on the beach!
Mar 12th, 2002, 04:42 AM
#12
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John, for somebody smart enough to have a Columbia e-mail address, I think you're being terribly naive to rely on reports from the hotels. Try a source that doesn't have a vested interest in your showing up! Plus, nobody can know what the situation will be over the course of your 11 days.
Also, note that the marinelab links given aboev by xxx have a special place on their web site where they request reports of effects of Red Tide on human health, as this is still being researched by their dept of health. The critters that cause red tide give off a neurotoxin, which is what causes fish kills. When it gets into the air, it can affect humans as well.
I for one will be in Palm Beach for my vacation this spring. Why take a chance? Even if everything's fine when you arrive, it could still flare up again. Yuck!
Also, note that the marinelab links given aboev by xxx have a special place on their web site where they request reports of effects of Red Tide on human health, as this is still being researched by their dept of health. The critters that cause red tide give off a neurotoxin, which is what causes fish kills. When it gets into the air, it can affect humans as well.
I for one will be in Palm Beach for my vacation this spring. Why take a chance? Even if everything's fine when you arrive, it could still flare up again. Yuck!
Mar 12th, 2002, 08:18 AM
#14
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Yes, you moron, I know what Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is; my father died from its effects.
You don't need "a flaming case of COPD" to be bothered by red tide.
Now go away and keep your idiodic attempts to dispense medical advice to yourself.
It appears that the answer to my question if that you were drunk and are stupid.
You don't need "a flaming case of COPD" to be bothered by red tide.
Now go away and keep your idiodic attempts to dispense medical advice to yourself.
It appears that the answer to my question if that you were drunk and are stupid.
Mar 12th, 2002, 11:38 AM
#15
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I should know better than to reply to you, Wondering, but I honestly think you missed my point, so I'll ignore your propensity for hostility and stick my head into your line of fire...again.
Meg (you?) talked about a "whole family coming home sick as dogs". She did not say they all returned with full blown asthma attacks or in the worst throws of emphysema and it's highly unlikely that everyone in the family would be afflicted with either asthma or emphysema anyway. It's safe to assume that they came home with some sort of a viral or bacterial infection which they have mistakenly attributed to red tide because they are misinformed as to what it actually does. I was hoping to clear up that misunderstanding.
There is a degree of irrational fear regarding red tide. No one wants to be on a beach anywhere near masses of dead fish, I'll grant you that, but that is rarely the case with red tide anyway. There are varying degrees...mild or moderate may result in no dead fish, or a few here and there and there are normally a few under the best of circumstances. The water most likely will appear absolutely normal in color and clarity. You may have virtually no symptoms at all and for the VAST majority of people, what you'll experience is a niggly cough as one would get from a throat tickle, and a little eye burning...and these symptoms don't linger. Fish caught live in a red tide bloom can be safely eaten even. Did you realize that?
I will apologize for only one thing in my post. I was mistaken about there being no red tide at the moment in the Tampa Bay area. I was writing from my own experience on the water here Saturday and Sunday. On looking at the reports after writing however, I find that indeed there is a bloom at the mouth of Tampa Bay currently. I was there, I was *on* the water and was totally unaware of it. It is not that red tide doesn't affect me...I've experienced more severe blooms with the same symptoms others have and trust me...it wasn't anything that would either keep me off the beach or in any way diminish my enjoyment of it. Dead fish everywhere, yes, that would, but in the majority of blooms, that is not the case.
OK...I've got my flack jacket ready. Shoot if you must, but hopefully, there are some who will see that red tide is not necessarily a death sentence for that beach vacation, even IF the area happens to have a bloom while you are there, and if I've managed to make that point, even if not to you, then I won't have wasted my time or breath in this reply.
Meg (you?) talked about a "whole family coming home sick as dogs". She did not say they all returned with full blown asthma attacks or in the worst throws of emphysema and it's highly unlikely that everyone in the family would be afflicted with either asthma or emphysema anyway. It's safe to assume that they came home with some sort of a viral or bacterial infection which they have mistakenly attributed to red tide because they are misinformed as to what it actually does. I was hoping to clear up that misunderstanding.
There is a degree of irrational fear regarding red tide. No one wants to be on a beach anywhere near masses of dead fish, I'll grant you that, but that is rarely the case with red tide anyway. There are varying degrees...mild or moderate may result in no dead fish, or a few here and there and there are normally a few under the best of circumstances. The water most likely will appear absolutely normal in color and clarity. You may have virtually no symptoms at all and for the VAST majority of people, what you'll experience is a niggly cough as one would get from a throat tickle, and a little eye burning...and these symptoms don't linger. Fish caught live in a red tide bloom can be safely eaten even. Did you realize that?
I will apologize for only one thing in my post. I was mistaken about there being no red tide at the moment in the Tampa Bay area. I was writing from my own experience on the water here Saturday and Sunday. On looking at the reports after writing however, I find that indeed there is a bloom at the mouth of Tampa Bay currently. I was there, I was *on* the water and was totally unaware of it. It is not that red tide doesn't affect me...I've experienced more severe blooms with the same symptoms others have and trust me...it wasn't anything that would either keep me off the beach or in any way diminish my enjoyment of it. Dead fish everywhere, yes, that would, but in the majority of blooms, that is not the case.
OK...I've got my flack jacket ready. Shoot if you must, but hopefully, there are some who will see that red tide is not necessarily a death sentence for that beach vacation, even IF the area happens to have a bloom while you are there, and if I've managed to make that point, even if not to you, then I won't have wasted my time or breath in this reply.
Mar 12th, 2002, 02:09 PM
#18
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What the hell is the matter with you people??? Someone responds to a question and let the flaming begin. I can see that we have learned NOTHING from 9-11?
We have all reverted back to being hostile, arrogant, obnoxious jerks to each other. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!! The only thing that matters in this life is how you treat others, not seeing who can one up someone!
If you can't be civil to each other here go somewhere else please.
We have all reverted back to being hostile, arrogant, obnoxious jerks to each other. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!! The only thing that matters in this life is how you treat others, not seeing who can one up someone!
If you can't be civil to each other here go somewhere else please.
