Free Republic

What a bad year to be a Florida manatee. For the first time on record, more than 1,000 of the sea mammals have died in a calendar year — and it’s not even December yet. That could amount to 1 in every 7 of the state’s manatees gone in less than 11 months. Many of them starved, thanks to a die-off of seagrass, a problem worsened by human-made pollution. In the short run, Florida owes it to this iconic mammal to find ways to mitigate the damage. It’s also time to put the manatees back on the endangered species list,...

They have even become accustomed to the smell — God, the smell — of all the rotting fish in gruesome flotillas, victims of a toxic Red Tide in Tampa Bay In Pinellas, they make $170 an hour, Toliver said. They pay for their own gas and expenses and drive an hour or more to reach the boat launch each day. Pinellas County has hired an ad hoc armada of shrimp boats like the Tuckers’ to comb local waters with nets. About 30 boats have helped; in total, the county has collected more than 1,440 tons of dead sea life and...

Red tide is a common name for a worldwide phenomenon known as an algae bloom (large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms—protozoans or unicellular algae) when it is caused by species of dinoflagellates and other algae. I was hoping, that during our vacation, I could get away from politics and just enjoy the beach, the white sand, the sea gulls, the dolphins, and the Floridian sun-shine. But politics hit me in the face in one form or another in this area overflowing with snow-bird Democrats from New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. Last year NGOs used young, beautiful, and half-clad women on...

Hope everyone is having a Happy FReeper Halloween. Do the Dem.s ever trick-or-treat or do they just trick & trick & trick? The blue wave is being dwarfed by the red tide, and the red tide is about to turn into a red tsunami.

Bill Still predicts wins for GOP Iin the Senate and the House.

Jason Vogel is fired up to vote. He says his passion crystallized two weeks ago when he saw just how chaotic Washington would be if the Democrats seized power in Congress. When Democratic senators smeared Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as an attempted rapist without proof, and angry protestors stormed the Capitol, he says he grew increasingly concerned. “A lot of my friends feel the same way. We ask ourselves, ‘Why would you vote Democrat?’ Our lives certainly weren’t better under their way of doing business.” This November, the question is: What will encourage the conservative populist coalition that put...

If you ever live at the shore, one thing that crops up in 13-year cycles is what they call Red Tide. The traditional explanation I have always heard is that is caused by farming and the runoff of their pesticides that contaminate the water. I use to hear that in New Jersey and the same thing in Florida. It seems to be linked to the same people who promote Global Warming who want us to starve and stop driving to work. I would ask, where is the runoff from farmers when there are none in this area? It would go...

A blue wave? Get real.The so-called “blue wave” has never been anything more than a leftist construct, a piece of propaganda designed to influence what is hoped is a gullible electorate. It was cooked up far too long before the midterms to be based on anything like objective data. Tracing the frequency of the phrase during the 2018 electoral cycle, on-line citations of a blue wave began to climb around the first of March of this year and have since never dropped to their earlier levels. So the attempt by left-media to hype this trope has been ongoing, but it never had...

GLADES COUNTY, Fla. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will suspend water releases from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries starting Monday morning. "As we look at operations in the system, we believe we can pause discharges for a short time to get additional input from staff on available options for moving water," said Col. Jason Kirk, Jacksonville District Commander. "We have implemented higher stages in the canal along the Tamiami Trail and we have implemented deviations to generate flexibility in operations at the southern end of the system to move additional water south. We want...

Red Tide: noun 1. a discoloration of seawater caused by a bloom (large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms) of toxic red dinoflagellates. It is caused by microscopic algae that produce toxins that kill fish and make shellfish dangerous to eat 2. a discoloration of  facts caused by a bloom (large concentrations of media microorganisms) of toxic anti-red state journalists. It is caused by microbial scum that produce toxic fake news  red alerts about Russian hacking in hopes of killing Trump’s presidency and making Republicans dangerous to elect. By daylight  you can see this scourge for what it actually is: a...

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A deadly algae bloom that killed a record number of manatees has dissipated, though the death toll for the endangered sea mammals continues to rise, Florida wildlife officials said on Thursday. Red Tide has killed 241 manatees this year as of Wednesday, said Kevin Baxter, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. The figure already surpasses the highest number of Red Tide manatee deaths on record in Florida - 151 in 1996. This year's fatalities from Red Tide will likely continue into the spring because the algae bloom's deadly toxins...

Find a dark spot on the San Diego County coastline after nightfall and you might be treated to a spectacular neon-blue light show. Bioluminescent waves, glowing electric blue as they crash ashore, have been dazzling nighttime beach visitors this week. People have been snapping photos of the otherworldly surf as it has increased in intensity over the last few days. The blue glow is caused by an algae bloom commonly referred to as a red tide. The organisms, phytoplankton called Lingulodinium polyedrum, have bloomed since late August, turning the water brownish-red in the daytime, according to UC San Diego scientists....

MONTGOMERY, Ala.--Most politicians would kill for--or spend millions of dollars to acquire--the name recognition Roy Moore has in Alabama. Not necessarily the kind of name recognition, mind you. Just the level. That's because here, and across the country, he's known not just as Roy Moore, but as "Roy Moore, Ten Commandments Judge"--the Southern Baptist-cum-chief justice of Alabama who defied a federal court order to remove his 2 1/2-ton monument to the Commandments from the state courthouse, and lost his job as a result. It's a moniker that wins him automatic support in some quarters, and deafens ears before he even...

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (USA) - Venezuelan exile groups in this U.S. territory accuse Hugo Chavez of interfering with the internal affairs of the United States by expanding his "Bolivarian Circles" to U.S. shores. At the popular local talk show "En La Mirilla" (In The Cross Hairs), Venezuelan exile leaders exposed the attempts of the Chavez "Bolivarian Revolution" to stir revolt in this U.S. Commonwealth. The accusations coincide with the visit of Venezuelan Minister Luis Tascón to the island. Tascón, infamous for publishing lists of opposition members in Venezuela by using electoral lists, is in Puerto Rico to meet with...

BOSTON (AP) - An outbreak of toxic red tide algae that has shut down most shellfishing from Maine to Massachusetts also forced state officials to close federal waters, extending the affected area by thousands of square miles. On Friday, the state Division of Marine Fisheries ordered Massachusetts crews to stop using federal shellfishing areas and asked federal officials to extend that ban to out-of state shellfishermen. The move extends the ban for state shellfishing crews from three miles from shore to 100 miles from shore. Toxins produced by the algae contaminate shellfish like clams and mussels, making them unsafe for...

"It's an unprecedented closure," said Shelley Dawicki, spokeswoman "We don't know how far it's going to spread."

BOSTON -- One of New England's worst red tides in decades expanded southward this week, rounding Cape Cod and forcing some of the region's most prolific shellfish beds to close. About half the state's shellfish beds have been closed to shellfishermen since the toxic algae bloom appeared in waters off Maine last month and began spreading southward with little sign of abating. "It's spreading," said state shellfish biologist Michael Hickey. First, shellfish beds as far north as New Hampshire were closed. Then, on Thursday, officials closed highly productive flats in the Monomoy Natural Wildlife Refuge, off Chatham. It's the worst...

> Red tide, a pesky phenomenon that is rare for Floridas eastern shore, has rolled into the Treasure Coast like a rude Thanksgiving guest, giving beachgoers in four counties tickly throats, itchy noses and eyes and killing fish in some coastal waters. We were sitting around the pool yesterday and everybody was coughing, said Becky Cowin, an Indiana resident visiting relatives on Hutchinson Island. We kept asking is this anthrax or what? Nobody had ever heard of red tide. Red tide is caused by microscopic plant-like organisms that bloom and release a toxin into the water. Depending on how concentrated...