Red tide, fish kills confirmed near Longboat Key

The Florida Wildlife Commission and Mote Marine Laboratory officials confirmed it Tuesday morning.

Longboat Key turtle monitor Terri Driver said she was taking a lunch break on the beach when she “started smelling something unusual.”

“Then I looked out on the water and there were hundreds and hundreds (of dead fish),” she said.

Kelly Richmond, Florida Wildlife Commission communications director in St. Petersburg, said the FWC started receiving fish kill phone calls Monday. The FWC investigative team found a variety of different species of fish among the kills: Manhattan, eels, mullet, bait fish and one red drum.

“We do have a high concentration of red tide but it is patchy,” Richmond said.

FWC is doing weekly sampling and Mote is doing daily sampling along Sarasota Bay.