Harmful Algal Blooms

Lake Avalon, which is in Sugden Regional Park in Collier County south of where Airport Pulling Road dead-ends into U.S. 41, is one of few freshwater beaches in the region with watersports being so popular it worries health officials who found a concentration of blue-green algae high enough to issue a health caution for the entire lake

Top Story

Health officials: Avoid popular Collier lake due to blue-green algae

Tom Bayles

Collier County health officials caution about blue-green algae toxins in Lake Avalon, south of downtown Naples, a popular place to waterski, boat, fish, and swim on a sandy beach,

Just weeks after hurricanes Helene and Milton sent massive amounts of storm surge inland throughout Southwest Florida, the organism that causes red tide is being found in medium and high concentrations in the coastal waters off Lee and Charlotte counties and in lower but significant numbers off Sarasota, Manatee, and Pinellas counties.

Environment

Environmental conditions ripe for red tides forming off Southwest Florida shores

Tom Bayles

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

None of the blue-green algae outbreaks in Lee County so far this year have grown into a full bloom like the one shown in this file photo from 2018

Environment

Health alert for blue-green algae called off; a new advisory issued

Tom Bayles

Small outbreaks of blue-green algae have been happening for weeks in the Caloosahatchee River

Environment

Another blue-green algae health alert issued along Caloosahatchee

Tom Bayles

The Florida Department of Health in Lee County has issued its fifth health alert this year, four of which have been due to blue-green algae in the Caloosahatchee River.

Brian Lapointe, an algae bloom expert at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, is deep into his research on to to best dispose of large sargassum mats landing on Florida and Caribbean beaches every summer thanks to a $1.3 million grant from the Florida Department of Emergency Management

Environment

Sound at sea, sargassum buries beaches and threatens tourism

Tom Bayles

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

A postcard from 1910, picturing the dredge named the Everglade working to drain the Everglades, shows the activity that was the catalyst for many of today's problems involving the environmental health of the Caloosahtachee River

Environment

Water Quality Report: Concerns for the Caloosahatchee River created a century ago

Tom Bayles

Controversy surrounds the Army Corps’ decisions when to release how much water from Lake Okeechobee, slowly, quickly, during the wet season or dry

Water released from Lake Okeechobee flows through spillways at Port Myaca before heading east down the St. Lucie River before emptying into the Atlantic OCean through the Indian River Lagoon. This process is part of the broader water management system in South Florida, which is designed to manage flood control and water quality, among other objectives. However, these water releases have been a subject of concern for their environmental impacts, particularly regarding water quality issues in the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon on the east coast and the Caloosahatchee River on the west coast

Environment

Water Quality Report: Lowering Lake Okeechobee underway

Tom Bayles

Lake O is so polluted with centuries-worth of phosphorous and nitrogen from agriculture runoff that water released from the lake down our Caloosahatchee River, or to the east down the St. Lucie River, carries bad stuff with it.

Spillways from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers will look like this on Saturday morning when the Army Corps of Engineers open the floodgates on the spillways to the east and west, and to Lake Worth Lagoon to the south

Environment

Lowering Lake Okeechobee before the rainy season is going to be a rush

Tom Bayles

The Army Corps of Engineers is planning to open three spillways in the dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee this weekend

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife are concerned that crews apparently cleaning debris from Hurricane Ian out of city canals are also destroying burrowing owl and gopher tortoise burrows

Environment

Blue-green algae detected near Midpoint Bridge in Cape Coral

Tom Bayles

Blue-green algae has been detected for the first time this year in canals near the Midpoint Bridge into Cape Coral and the Florida Department of Health issued a warning

Many locals expected heavy blue-green algae outbreak in Southwest Florida this summer like this one pictured above in the St. John's River recently

Environment

Blue-green algae lessening in Caloosahatchee River

Tom Bayles

The Florida Department of Health in Lee County has canceled five health warnings due to harmful algal blooms in Southwest Florida that have been in effect all summer from the upper Caloosahatchee