SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Island officials said today is the first time they have found dead fish washing up on the shoreline within the city limits due to red tide.
“If your not asthmatic or have respiratory problems its safe to go to the beach,” said Tony Reisinger, Texas AgriLife’s extension agent for coastal and marine resources with Texas Sea Grant.
Reisinger said red tide is appearing earlier in the year and it has been occurring more frequently now than in the 80s, and 90s.
“It could last a week, it can last months, but it can be gone tomorrow,” Reisinger said.
Reisinger said Red Tide Rangers, who are an elite group of volunteers trained to monitor red tides in Texas, are monitoring the Gulf Coast beaches.
He said yesterday’s finding revealed high cell counts one and half miles north of the end of Highway 100, with moderate aerosol and small dead fish beginning to wash ashore.
Reisinger said the volunteers are taking daily samples of the water to test for red tide.
The most affected species of fish killed are juvenile gafftopsail catfish.
For more on this story read Tuesday’s Valley Morning Star.
