August 4, 2021: Florida Suffers from New "Red Tide"

 

8/4/21: Florida’s Gulf Coast is suffering from another bloom of red tide, the worst since 2018. Red tides are caused by algae growing in increasingly warm waters, fed by run-off of fertilizers from farms. Pinellas County reports sweeping up 1,711 tons of dead fish and other sea life from its beaches. 

In this case, the April discharge of more than 200 million gallons of polluted water from an abandoned phosphate plant – where a holding pond was in danger of breaking – is likely tied to the red tide bloom in Tampa Bay.

 

Floridians, by overwhelming majorities, support programs to protect their environment, including preserving a “green network” across the state to aid wildlife, reforestation efforts to combat climate change, and restrictions on the use of agricultural fertilizers to stem the red tides. 

In some cases, 90% support measures to protect the environment. As president, Trump’s policies on the environment earned him “F’ marks from almost every leading environmental organization.

Red tides leave beaches clogged with dead fish.