Florida fish kill

[Capt Sal]

Terrible to see.Dead fish floating for miles. They floated into canals that are dead ends. They stink.This happened where i live. We have been saying for months the water is brown what is up with that. This area is from North Of Cape Canaveral to past Merrit Island which is south of that. It has not reached Sebastian Inlet to our South. The only out lets in this area to the Atlantic Ocean are Canaveral And Sebastian. The Indian and Banana Rivers are Intracoastal waterways and are brackish water. Our wonderful government agency NOAA has still not deterined exactly what the cause was. They keep messing with mother nature by diverting fresh water into the salt. Had to be the oxygen.

[Ry609]

Most likely a result of the massive amounts of rain Florida's gotten recently washing the fertilizers from everyones lawns into the storm sewer which ultimately drains to these waterways and promotes algae blooms that then deplete dissolved O2 in the water. Just happened up in LI last year also

[Gerry Zagorski]

I've been reading about this too.... I thought they determined it was from all the water released from the Okeechobee system and that Sugar Cane farming and the chemicals they use were at the root of it.

Was down in Fort Myers several weeks ago after some torrential rains, the worst the area has seen since they've been keeping records. They apparently released the water to keep the Okeechobee dikes from being compromised. When they did much of the water headed towards the Fort Myers area bays and beaches. It was a mess... Brown stained water until you got several miles off the beach into the ocean.

Dead Mullet all over the place inshore in the bays and rivers and fishing was horrible.

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

I've been reading about this too.... I thought they determined it was from all the water released from the Okeechobee system and that Sugar Cane farming and the chemicals they use were at the root of it.

Was down in Fort Myers several weeks ago after some torrential rains, the worst the area has seen since they've been keeping records. They apparently released the water to keep the Okeechobee dikes from being compromised. When they did much of the water headed towards the Fort Myers area bays and beaches. It was a mess... Brown stained water until you got several miles off the beach into the ocean.

Dead Mullet all over the place inshore in the bays and rivers and fishing was horrible.

The St. Johns River is not connected to the waterways of Okeechobee. They see the effects of screwing with mother nature in the West Palm Area. Capt. Rich of Tuna Wahoo would know more about that me. Word here is the Banana river got hit harder than the Indian River. The whole system of the Banana and Indian river from mosquito lagoon to Sebastian Inlet is called the Indian River Lagoon.

[Captain Rich]

We had brown water last month from the Okeechobee releases but that has all cleared out now. Water clarity is crystal clear at the marina, and fishing offshore is pretty good. Pretty nasty looking when it happened but no fish kills here.

[shrimpman steve]

I just landed in Orlando. Heading to merit in the next day or two to interview down here. I guess I'll see first hand

[mahigold]

fished the St Lucie and the Indian river this past week. I was wondering why the water was so brown even though the inlet was less that 1 mile away ? Fishing was great though and no signs of a kill there.