100's to 1000's of sqmi of dead, barren bottom

[Ifishtoo]

I have been hearing from some long time bottom fisherman, "The bottom south of Steinhatchee, is dead". The handful of large commercial bottom fishing boats in Steinhatchee, left back in March. They are now running out of ports south of Tarpon Springs. The reports from Steinhatchee began following last September's "Red Tide Out Break". From that time forward, fish catches plummeted. I was hearing reports that divers in April were confirming what fisherman had suspected. The rock bottom remains........... but vast areas have no living marine life. No living sponges, corrals, sea fans, etc............ and no fish or crabs!

Today, I've heard from a retired Capt friend down in Hommassa & Crystal River, "Beyond 30ft and west ward to 80ft, much of the bottom is dead!"

It appears that last summer's Red Tide was truly "Red Tide on steroids". At one time or another, I have bottom fished out Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Crystal River, Cedar Key, & Steinhatchee. From what I have been hearing from some older fisherman along that coast, there is an approx rectangle of 150nm long (N & S) and approx 35nm wide (E & W) that has very little live bottom left!

That rectangle would cover 150 nm X 35 nm = 5250sqnm of barren, dead bottom. Bottom that was alive in June of 2014. As summer has arrived, more & more divers are seeing this first hand. Ask around, see if anyone is catching a limit of any kind of bottom fish......... in that vast natural habitat. From what I can tell, once you arrive due West of Steinhatchee, conditions improve. I know for a fact that there are very few bottom fish of any kind being caught in waters 20-60ft, 12-40nm, S, SSW, SW, or WSW of Steinhatchee. This is not what commercial interests want reported, so I would expect many people will contest this situation. Myself and some other old retired fellas "don't have a dog in the hunt" and we know something very bad has happened in that part of the Gulf. This was not a typical "Severe out break of Red Tide" that the GOM experiences. This is the largest area that many old time fisherman can ever remember being, "Laid to Waste".

NOAA scientists are aware of it............ but it will be a very political issue. Getting to the truth and scope of the problem will be............ well, I wonder if we will ever hear the truth. So sad, to lose so much live bottom at one time.

[DixieReb]

Fishing everywhere has been off since the red tide last summer. I hope it improves, I still like fishing there.

[bman]

I'm curious to hear more reports of this... and wonder about causes. That area is not one where you would expect high pollution or law fertilizer.

[Bottomtime]

My dad has a place and fishes in Steinhatchee. He has told me on the past several outings that the general area you described barely produces anything while bottom fishing. The only places he's found anything is WNW out of Steinhatchee on numbers I used to fish out of St. Marks, and he claims the pickings are slim up there.

[Salty Gator]

Go to the big bend section of fs forum. Those guys hav been all over this since it happened. Lost of recon missions with go pro footage of what the area looked like before and after. Seems pretty bad

[Steve Stinson]

Wow. Not good. I wonder if this has anything to do with the decline in the trout catches too. Any trace of oil dispersant or other pollutants in the water?

[woopty]

Problems on the hill too in that area.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 2evtSwAAlg

[JIm Smith]

I have found a red tint on the shore line on some of the outer keys in the Cedar Key area in recent months. any ideas what it might be.

[Ifishtoo]

I and others have seen Red Tide outbreaks dating back to 1970's. Dead fish are seen floating for miles. Bottom fishing rapidly collapses, but 12 months later, there is a slight come back. The scope of this event seems to cover a much larger area...... and it's not just reef fish that died, it's everything down there..... NOW, almost 12 months later, "The bottom is dead and the fish are still absolutely gone"!

From Tarpon Springs to Steinhatchee Marker 1 is an enormous area. Even if the "live bottom" affected was only 10nm wide, it would still mean the lose of over 1000sqmi of "Live Bottom". From all the first hand reports off Steinhatchee and Hommassa, it covers more than a 20nm wide area.

As an old fisherman, who seldom fishes anymore, this certainly appears to be something that will take 5-10yrs to recover from. Even then, it would depend on NO MORE RED TIDE in the same area for the next decade. Was this simply Red Tide or is there something else involved?

As for future NOAA fisheries regulations.......... this year's catch totals will certainly be lower............ but what about that "Sustainable Amount" that NOAA tries to calculate??

[SS-342]

Well, hopefully this will start the conversation.

Thanks Ifishtoo for the close observations and Post. I don't know doodley about your subject except the fact the Red Tide did happen last year and fishing hasn't been so good this year. Something has messed up the pattern but some have found other places and methods to catch them. I have no idea what the fact are but do know a change has been made. Hopefully someone smarter than me will comment!

[Ifishtoo]

Just seems like 12months later, many good areas/pieces of bottom are barren. In years past, that is not normally the case. The size of area is also troublesome. Apparently, habitat north of latitude 29 - 27 .000 , which is Steinhatchee Marker 1, is not nearly as affected as habitat 100nm to the south. Those 3-4 large commercial boats would not have left their docks at home ports, if it was not a major issue. There have been commercial bottom fishing boats operating out of Steinhatchee for over 50yrs. That channel always allows a minimum of 5-6ft at any low tide. Those are snapper/grouper IFQ permitted boats. They did not move 100+ nm farther south because there are fewer fishing boats down there. They left because bottom fishing collapsed after Sept 2014 and has not begun an expected recovery.

Darn few guide boats are running bottom fishing trips this past Mar-July. They simply gave up, too. Again, reports I have are, "Offshore of Hommassa, Crystal River, & Barge Canal; there is some living habitat inshore of 30ft and some fish are being caught there. However, if you have some good bottom between 30-80ft, forget it! 60-80ft is usually good Red Snapper fishing. That must be about a 25-30nm wide area.

It would be great hearing any reports of PLENTY of pink mouths, black seabass, and grouper being caught in 45-55ft of water south of St Marks. That same area is about 30-40nm NW of Steinhatchee. In years past, there was always plenty of sqmis of live bottom in that area.

[Dubble Trubble]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2 ... /31123029/

Not our area, but still interesting.

Note in the article where they talk about nitrogen from fertilizer runoff.

The area below Steinhatchee is where the Suwanee dumps into the ocean, and there are many,many farm fields drained in the Suwanee runoff water.

So, was it red tide, or runoff, or a combination of the two?


Dubble

[MudDucker]

Actually, the Suwanee is small potatoes compared to the Flint/Chattahoochee/Apalachicola basin. I haven't heard a peep about either basis having excess nitrogen run off. A biologist told one of my bud's that it was a naturally occurring red tide. I'm sure that the truth is that it was Bush's fault.