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Both red tide maps, current as of Dec. 12, 2024, show red tide about ten miles offshore Fort Myers, which is killing offshore anglers' chances to fish with live bait when they pass through the higher concentration of the red tide organism and the water gets in the live well

Water Quality Report: ‘The Mystery of the Dead Live Bait - The Red Tide Tales'

Red tide samples are coming up positive throughout Southwest Florida, but it's offshore where it's making an impact when anglers arrive to find out the organism got into the live wells and killed their bait.

A NASA satellite captured the huge bloom of blue-green algae the same week in early June that Captains for Clean Water flew a plane over Lake Okeechobee and filmed remarkable images of the cyanobacteria. If heavy rains or a hurricane come this way the Army Corps of Engineers will release this water down the Caloosahatchee River to protect the people living around the lake rather than test the integrity of the reinforced Herbert Hoover Dike any more than has been done with the lake level over 14 feet

Water Quality Report: Video shows blue-green algae outbreak on Lake O

Lake Okeechobee getting full... cyanobacteria. If heavy rains or a hurricane come this way the Army Corps of Engineers will release this water down the Caloosahatchee River to protect the people living around the lake

Jimmy Buffett playing for U.S. troops on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in 2008

Water Quality Report: Did you know what Jimmy did for Florida's environment?

It's been one year since Jimmy Buffett died, and the environmentalist wrote in his will that his holdings need to be environmentally sound, forever

Red tide is not normally this colorful, but researchers are discovering it can also be deadly when it does not discolor the water at all

Water Quality Report: How red tide can be here, but not be here. Wait. What?

I can explain how red tide can be here and not be here simultaneously. Part of it lies in how that sneaky basic component of red tide, Karenia brevis, is, along with the vernacular use of “red tide” versus the scientific meaning. And seagulls.

Florida Filmmakers Focus on Water Quality, BP Oil Spill at Fort Myers Film Fest

The Fort Myers Film Festival raises the curtain on March 8, screening dozens of short and feature-length films for five days at various locations…

Local brewers eye a special beer for National Water Quality Month, Calusa Waterkeeper event

A leak at the reservoir of an old phosphate plant in Piney Point, Florida, as shown in an aerial photograph on April 3, has prompted evacuations, environmental concerns and threats of a full-fledged breach.

Scientists Monitor Water Quality Near Piney Point Leak As Threat Of Algal Blooms Remains

Officials say the wastewater being released into Tampa Bay is not radioactive, but it does contain a lot of nutrients that can fuel algal blooms. Scientists say it will take time to see if damage occurred.

Barry Rosen, FGCU Professor, Department of Ecology & Environmental Studies, in the Water School, talks with Program Manager Kent Ross, center, as Florida Gulf Coast University student Gustavo Rosas, looks on. Two Florida Gulf Coast University students as well as one student from University of Central Florida, and one from Oregon State University, were accepted into NASA’s DEVELOP program this summer. The program aims to give students hands-on experience in the field of earth science, and help partners of the program solve environmental problems. This is the first time FGCU has been selected as a NASA DEVELOP site. The team will be working with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to analyze water samples taken from Seminole land.

NASA program has FGCU and other students studying water quality on Seminole tribal lands

NASA’s DEVELOP Program has brought a new research project to Southwest Florida bringing together a group of four students from FGCU, UCF, and Oregon State University to work with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to analyze water samples taken from tribal land.DEVELOP aims to give students hands-on experience in the field of earth science, and help partners of the program solve environmental problems.

Water Quality Report: The remaining hurricane season and why I hope I'm wrong

WGCU's Tom Bayles predicts hurricane season will heat up and, if so, he believes a Category 2 or 3 hurricane may be in Southwest Florida's near future. He hopes he's wrong.

The research team gathering aboard the W.T. Hogarth - one of Florida Institute of Oceanography's research vessels.

Faculty & student researchers from FGCU's Water School spend a week offshore collecting water quality data in the weeks after Hurricane Ian

Several weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall a team of faculty and student researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School joined a weeklong, offshore research trip to collect water samples and survey sea beds to better understand the storm’s ecological impact. We talk with two of the research team members to learn more about the trip and what they found.

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