Gulf of Mexico

Fishing for tarpon on the Big Indian Rocks Pier as a teenager, WGCU senior environmental reporter Tom Bayles says he cannot remember ever smelling a red tide or seeing blue-green algae. Now, they are both blooming at the same time where he lives

President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico has left residents along the Gulf Coast sharply divided. Some say it awakens their pride in the U.S. while others suggest it’s a silly distraction.The order, which Trump signed Monday night, his first day in office, directs the secretary of the Interior Department to take all the needed steps to change the name to “Gulf of America” within 30 days.The order says in part that the Gulf plays “a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America.”

A type of harmful blue-green algae is so great in Lake Avalon that it remains closed to water sports enthusiasts for the third month. Meanwhile, red tides 15 miles wide are blooming in the Gulf of Mexico. In Southwest Florida, blue-green algae like the summer and fall, while red tide's time is the cooler winter and spring — but both harmful algae have taken hold in places throughout the region.

Saldrone's award is part of a federal and state initiative to support infrastructure, habitat mapping, restoration projects, resource management, emergency response, and coastal resiliency and hazard studies. At 2,170 kilometers long, Florida’s coastline is second only to Alaska among U.S. states. Many parts of the Florida coast remain not surveyed, with existing nautical charts relying on outdated and low-resolution data.

Hurricanes Milton and Helene contributing to red tide formation like after Hurricane Ian in 2022

Millions of tons of yellow-brown algae that have been swirling about in a region of the tropical Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea are now breaking loose and landing on Florida shores

Jill Sander and Mary Laser picked up two top spots in the Fort Myers Beach Tarpon Hunters Club annual tournament.Sander won Angler of the Year. Laser won the most tarpon caught on light tackle.

Last year’s sargassum bloom was so big it posed challenges on a hemispheric scale for marine ecosystems and coastal towns. The size of this upcoming summer’s fledgling bloom is setting records.

Federal officials’ rejection of a petition seeking to protect a rare whale species in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico has proponents saying the action leaves the endangered species “at risk of extinction.”

Shell beds, shell benches, shell piles. The colorful rows of shells extending for quite some distance are a natural phenomenon seen along the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.