Red Tide!!!

[JustHolly]

Ted and I decided to explore Venice Beach today - the shark tooth capital of the world. We got up and were out of the house by 6am for the 2+ hour drive.

We went to Caspersen Beach in Venice and set up our beach chairs. Anxious to get in, I ran into the water, getting completely soaked, but I noticed strange looks from the few others on the beach.

Within minutes we were coughing, sneezing and choking. The dead fish all over the beach should have clued me in. Within minutes, neither of us could breathe! I commented that it was like there was pepper flying through the air. We got out of there in a hurry.

After making a phone call, I realized it was RED TIDE! Apparently it is common in the fall and stretches from Ft. Myers through Sarasota right now!

Geez! What else don't I know about Florida yet?!! This little "mistake" nearly killed me.

BEWARE OF THE RED TIDE!

 

[nativetxn]

YUCK! Well, lesson learned the hard way. I know nothing about Florida, really, I would have probably done the same as you and been sorry.

 

[RitaZ.]

Wow, that's scary! That probably would have been deadly for my DH (asthmatic).

There have been reports of Red Tide on the Gulf coast since earlier this year. BSnyder (Bet) first told me about it back in March. Since our family goes to the Gulf coast during the summer, I checked the status of Red Tide prior to our vacation.

Here is a good link to check on the current status~

http://www.marinelab.sarasota.fl.us/~mhenry/rtupdate.phtml BTW, If you go the bottom of the page, you can see where they are conducting a study of the effects of Red Tide on asthma and copd patients.

I didn't know that it would have that effect on people though. Thanks for sharing your experience and glad that you're ok.

 

[JustHolly]

Thanks for the link, Rita! We are breathing easy again tonight!

I wonder.... what do asthmatic/COPD people who live on the coast do when a Red Tide rolls in?